On the reflexivity of the spaces of variable integrability and summability (Q6052378)

Let \(p(\cdot):\mathbb{R}^n\to(0,\infty]\) be a variable exponent such that \(p_-:=\mathop{\operatorname{ess\,inf}}\limits_{x\in\mathbb{R}^n}p(x)>0\) and \(p_+:=\mathop{\operatorname{ess\,sup}}\limits_{x\in\mathbb{R}^n}p(x)\le+\infty\). Define \(\Omega_\infty:=\{x\in\mathbb{R}^n:p(x)=\infty\}\) and \(\Omega_0:=\mathbb{R}^n\setminus\Omega_\infty\). For a measurable function \(f\) on \(\mathbb{R}^n\), consider \(\varrho_{L^{p(\cdot)}}(f):=\int_{\Omega_0}|f(x)|^{p(x)}dx +\|f\|_{L^\infty(\Omega_\infty)}\). The variable Lebesgue space \(L^{p(\cdot)}\) consists of all measurable functions \(f\) on \(\mathbb{R}^n\) such that \(\varrho_{L^{p(\cdot)}}(f/\lambda)<\infty\) for some \(\lambda>0\). For variable exponents \(p(\cdot), q(\cdot)\) as above and a sequence \(f=(f_\nu)_{\nu=1}^\infty\) in \(L^{p(\cdot)}\), define \[ \varrho_{\ell^{q(\cdot)}(L^{p(\cdot)})}(f):=\sum_{\nu=1}^\infty \inf\left\{\lambda_\nu>0:\varrho_{L^{p(\cdot)}} \left(\lambda_\nu^{-1/q(\cdot)}|f_\nu|\right)\le 1\right\}, \] where one uses the convention \(\lambda^{1/\infty}=1\) for \(\lambda>0\). The variable mixed Lebesgue space \(\ell^{q(\cdot)}(L^{p(\cdot)})\) consists of those sequences \(f=(f_\nu)_{\nu=1}^\infty\) in \(L^{p(\cdot)}\) for which there exists \(\lambda>0\) such that \(\varrho_{\ell^{q(\cdot)}(L^{p(\cdot)})}(f/\lambda)<\infty\). If the variable exponents \(p(\cdot),q(\cdot)\) satisfy \(p_-,q_-\ge 1\) and one of the following conditions: (1)~\(1\le q(\cdot)\le p(\cdot)\le\infty\); (2)~\(q(\cdot)\) is constant; (3)~\(1/p(\cdot)+1/q(\cdot)\le 1\), then \(\ell^{q(\cdot)}(L^{p(\cdot)})\) is a Banach space equipped with the norm \[ \|f\|_{\ell^{q(\cdot)}(L^{p(\cdot)})}:= \inf\left\{\lambda>0:\varrho_{\ell^{q(\cdot)}(L^{p(\cdot)})}(f/\lambda)\le 1\right\}. \] The main result of the paper says that if the variable exponents \(p(\cdot)\) and \(q(\cdot)\) satisfy \(1<p_-,q_-,p_+,q_+<\infty\) and one of the conditions (1), (2), or (3) above, then \(\ell^{q(\cdot)}(L^{p(\cdot)})\) is reflexive. This result is applied to the study of reflexivity of Besov spaces with variable exponents defined as follows. For a pair of Schwartz functions \((\varphi,\Phi)\), let \(\varphi_0:=\Phi\) and \(\varphi_\nu:=2^{\nu n}\varphi(2^\nu)\) for \(\nu\ge 1\). Suppose that \(\operatorname{supp}(\mathcal{F}\varphi)\subset\{1/2\le |\xi|\le 2\}\), \(\operatorname{supp}(\mathcal{F}\Phi)\subset\{|\xi|\le 2\}\), and \(\sum_{\nu=0}^\infty|\mathcal{F}\varphi_\nu|^2=1\). For \(s(\cdot)\in L^\infty\) and variable exponents \(p(\cdot),q(\cdot)\) as above, the Besov space \(B_{p(\cdot),q(\cdot)}^{s(\cdot)}\) is the set of all distributions \(f\in S'\) such that \(\|f\|_{B_{p(\cdot),q(\cdot)}^{s(\cdot)}}^\varphi:= \left\|(2^{\nu s(\cdot)}\varphi_\nu*f)_{\nu=0}^\infty\right\|_{\ell^{q(\cdot)}(L^{p(\cdot)})}<\infty\). Assume that \(s(\cdot)\in L^\infty\) and \(p(\cdot),q(\cdot)\) are variable exponents such that \(1<p_-,q_-,p_+,q_+<\infty\) and satisfy one of the conditions (1), (2), or (3) above. It is shown that if there exist \(c,p_\infty,q_\infty>0\) such that \begin{align*} |p(x)-p_\infty|+|q(x)-q_\infty| &\le\frac{c}{\log(e+|x|)}, \\ |p(x)-p(y)|+|q(x)-q(y)|+|s(x)-s(y)| & \le\frac{c}{\log(e+1/|x-y|)} \end{align*} for all \(x,y\in\mathbb{R}^n\), then \(B_{p(\cdot),q(\cdot)}^{s(\cdot)}\) is reflexive.