Nikodym Maximal Functions Associated with Variable Planes in ${\mathbb{R}^{3}}$

Abstract

Given a vector field ${\mathfrak{a}}$ on ${\mathbb{R}^3}$ , we consider a mapping ${x\mapsto \Pi_{\mathfrak{a}}(x)}$ that assigns to each ${x\in\mathbb{R}^3}$ , a plane ${\Pi_{\mathfrak{a}}(x)}$ containing x, whose normal vector is ${\mathfrak{a}(x)}$ . Associated with this mapping, we define a maximal operator ${\mathcal{M}^{\mathfrak{a}}_N}$ on ${L^1_{loc}(\mathbb{R}^3)}$ for each ${N\gg 1}$ by

$$\mathcal{M}^{\mathfrak{a}}_Nf(x)=\sup_{x\in\tau} \frac{1}{|\tau|} \int_{\tau}|f(y)|\,dy$$

where the supremum is taken over all 1/N ×  1/N × 1 tubes τ whose axis is embedded in the plane ${\Pi_\mathfrak{a}(x)}$ . We study the behavior of ${\mathcal{M}^{\mathfrak{a}}_N}$ according to various vector fields ${\mathfrak{a}}$ . In particular, we classify the operator norms of ${\mathcal{M}^{\mathfrak{a}}_N}$ on ${L^2(\mathbb{R}^3)}$ when ${\mathfrak{a}(x)}$ is the linear function of the form (a ₁₁ x ₁ + a ₂₁ x ₂, a ₁₂ x ₁ + a ₂₂ x ₂, 1). The operator norm of ${\mathcal{M}^\mathfrak{a}_N}$ on ${L^2(\mathbb{R}^3)}$ is related with the number given by

$$D=(a_{12}+a_{21})^2-4a_{11}a_{22}.$$