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Remarks on the Hardy Inequality
D.E. EDMUNDS
a,* andR. HURRI-SYRJ,,NEN
bCentre
for Mathematical Analysis anditsApplications,University of
Sussex,
Falmer, Brighton,East Sussex
BN1 9QH,UK
b
Department
ofMathematics,University ofHelsinki, Hallituskatu15, SF-O0100Helsinki, Finland (Received3July1996)LetDbeanopensubset ofIR (n>2)with finiteLebesguen-measure, letd(x)be thedistance from x IR"totheboundary0DofD,and let < p < o.We giveasimpledirectproof that ifIR"\Dsatisfies theplumpnessconditionofMartioand Viisili 10],then the inequality ofHardytype,
holdswhenever/>max{0,ot }.Wealsoshow that theplumpnessconditionmaybereplaced byones whichenable domains with lower-dimensional portionsoftheir boundariestobe handled.
AMSsubjectclassificationnumber: 46E35.
Keywords: Hardy inequality; distance function; plumpness; Poincar6 inequality; Sobolev spaces.
1 INTRODUCTION
Let D
be anopen
subset ofR n,
let 1 < p < oe, andgivenxD
letd(x)
be the distancefromx totheboundary0D
ofD. It
iswell known(cf.
[6], p.223)
that if ubelongstothe SobolevspaceWp(D)
andu/d Lp(D),
0
then infactulies in
Wp(D),
the closure ofC(D)
inWlp(D).
Thisholdswithno restrictions on 0
D.
Theresult inthe oppositedirection,namelythat0
if u
W]p(D)
thenu/d Lp(D),
would follow immediatelyif one knew thattheHardy inequality*Authorfor correspondence.
125
126 D.E. EDMUNDSandR.HURRI-SYRJ,NEN
fo 1
(lu (x)l/d (X))
pdx <_ CIVu (x)l
pdx, u. Wp(D) (1.1)
was truefortheparticular
D
and theparticularp. Thevalidityof(1.1)
has beenextensively investigated: forexample,
Davies[4]
has shown that if p 2andD
isboundedand satisfies a certaintype ofcone condition,then(1.1)
holds;it is clearthat hisargumentcanbeadaptedtopermitother values of p. Other work ontheHardy inequality(1.1),
and weighted analogues of it, maybe found in thepaper
byAncona [2]
and thebook by Opic and Kufner[11 ]. Moreover,
Lewis[9]
has shown that if 1 < p < n andR
n\ D
is(1, p) uniformly fat,then(1.1)
holds;ifn < p < c he shows that(1.1)
holdsfor allD # R n.
The uniform fatness condition which heimposeswhen 1 < p < nisthat there is apositiveconstant;
such that for all xR
n\ D
and allr > 0,Rl,p (r
-1(B
(x,r)fq(Rn\ D)))
>_),where
B
(x,r)
istheopen
ball inR
nwith centrex and radius r, andR
1, pis a certain Rieszcapacity.Sufficient conditionsfor(1.1)
to holdhave also been givenbyWannebo 14]; theseareexpressedin terms of acapacityintroduced by Maz’jaandenablehim toreproduceLewis’sresultsforp > n andtoshow that(1.1)
holds if p > n 1 andD ( Rn)
issimplyconnected.In
15]other sufficient conditionsfor(1.1)
tohold aregiven.In
the presentpaperwe show that ifD
has finite volume andR
n\ D
satisfiestheplumpnessconditionofMartioand Viiisiilii 10],then notonly does(1.1)
holdbut also moregeneral inequalitiesofthe formfo (iu (x)l /d (x))
pd Cf. (IVu (x)l/d tx))
pd,UC
(1.2)
where 1 < p < cx and/3
>_max{0, ot-1}.
This is established in Section 2 by comparatively straightforward procedures. WhenD
has a Lipschitz boundary, our resultagrees
with Theorem 10.4 of Gurka and Opic [7], obtainedby entirelydifferentmethods and under the additional assumptionthat/3
>p
(p1).
Ifot 1andfl
0,(1.2)
coincides with(1.1)
but does not thengive anythingnew, as it can be shown that ifR
n\
Dis
plump
andunbounded,it is(1, p)
uniformly fat forevery p > 1 so that Lewis’s resultapplies. Theplumpness condition, which will beexplainedin detail in Section2, isarather natural geometriccondition on
D
which iseasy
tocheck and hasnothingtodo with p. Like Lewis, ourargumentsdepend
on awell-known lemmadue toCarleson [3];but wehopethat our direct use of theplumpnessconditionmayhavesomeappealfor those who areless familiar with notions ofcapacity, and maystimulatefurtherwork.In
Section3, theplumpness
condition isreplaced
byones whichenableus tohandledomains with lower-dimensionalportionsof their boundaries, and here the rangeofpossiblep’s
forwhich,say,(1.1)
holdsisdependent upon thepropertiesofD.
Whilethese results can infact beobtained fromcapacity results,wehopethat the direct method ofproofwill beofinterest.2 A WEIGHTED HARDY
INEQUALITYFirst we fix the notation andprovidesome basic definitions.Throughoutthe paperweshall assume
(unless
otherwisestated) thatD
isanopen subset ofR
n(n
>2)
with finiteLebesguen-measure. GivenanysetsA, B
CR n,
the distance betweenA
andB
willdenotedbyd(A, B)
andthedistance from xR
n toA
byd(x,
A), writingd(x) d(x, OD)
for shortness;ifA
has finiteLebesguen-measureA In,
theaverage
of a function u overA
isdefined tobeUA
IAI
-1[
u(x)
dx.Ja
The
open
ball inR
n with centre x and radius > 0 will be denotedbyB(x,
t);when rnN
t_J{cx}, C
n(D)
willstand forthespace
of allrntimescontinuouslydifferentiablereal-valuedfunctions withcompact supportin
D;
we write
Ilullp,o (fo lu (x)l
pdx)
1/pforall p(1,
o); k-dimensional Hausdorffmeasure onR
n will be denotedby7-/k
when k < nWp (D)
willstandfor the Sobolev spaceof all functions which,togetherwith their first-orderdistributional derivatives, are in
Lp (D).
Giventwonon-negative expressions (thatis, functions orfunctionals) R1,Re
we shallwriteR1
-<R2
as
ashorthandforthestatementthatR1
<CR2
for some constantC (0,)
independent of the variables in the expressions R1, R2; ifR1
-<R2
andR2
-<R1
wewriteR R2.
DEFINITION2.1 Given anyb
(0,
1], we saythatR
n\ D
is b-plumpif
thereexiststr > 0such that
for
all yD
and all(0,
tr] there isanx
(R
n\ D)
tqB(y,t)
withd(x)
> bt.128 D.E. EDMUNDSandR. HURRI-SYRJ./i.NEN
This definition isdue to Martioand Vaisali 10];JerisonandKenig
[8]
call thehypothesisofthedefinition acorkscrew condition.Moreover,
there is a connectionwiththe exteriorregulardomainsof Triebel and Winkelvoss13]"
if
D
coincides with the interior of itsclosure,thenD
isexteriorregularif, and onlyif, it isb-plumpfor some b.Our
first result isthefollowing:TIOIEM2.2.
Suppose
thatR
n\ D
is b-plumpfor
some b(0,
1], let1 < p < cx and let or,
R
be such thatmax
{0,
ot-1}. (2.1)
Thenthereis a constant
C
> 0such thatfor
alluC (D)
[ [
dD dD
(2.2)
Proof
Letu 6C (D)
wemayandshallsupposethatuis defined on all ofR
n and is zero onR
n\
D.Let
I/Vbe aWhitney decompositionofD (see [12],
p. 16);that is, IA; is afamilyof closeddyadiccubesQ,
withpairwise disjoint interiors, suchthatD U aw Q,
1 < d(Q,
OD) /
diam (Q) < 4 forallQ
6142
(diam (Q) beingthe diameter ofQ)and1/4
<_ diam (Q1)/diam (Qz) < 4forall Q1,Q2142
withQ1NQ2.
For
eachQ
6 I/Vwefix anXQ OD such that d(OD,
Q) d(XQ, Q)
andchoose acube D
a
withcentre xa
such that diam()
diam(a).
Then
fo (In (x)l/d (x))
pdxfQ (lu (x)l/diam
a(Q))P
dx< QeW
f (lu (x)l/diam (Q))P
dx.(2.3)
Since
R
n\ D
isb-plump,there existstr > 0 suchthat for allz
6 0D
and allt 6(0,
cr],thereisay 6(R n\D)
fqB(z,t) withd(y,0D)
> bt.We
may assumethatcr >_ diam(9)
for allQ W
andsomaychooset= diam
( )
for if there isamaximalQo
6Wsuchthat diam(o)
> r,we simply takek > 0 such thatcr > k diam
(o)
and then work withk diam
()
insteadof diam(). It
followsthat foreachQ W
thereisay
(R
n\ D) n B (XQ,
diam())
withd(y) > b diam(9);
we write,-- Q (y,
b diam(9)In),
the
open
cube with centrey and sidesof lengthb diam() /n
parallelto theaxes.As A
CR
n\ D,
themeanvalueu’
0. Thusfrom(2.3)
weobtainfD (lu (x)l/d ’ (x))
pdx -< QE
’Vv(lu (x) /
diama(Q))P
dx.(2.4) Use
ofH61der’s and MinkowskPsinequalitiesnowshows thatforallcR,
f,
u(x).- u’2l
pdx <_ 2p(I O.In/I.ln) f, lu (x) cl
pdx21)
(n/b)
nf, lu (x) cl
pdx.The choicec u
’
in thisinequality, togetherwith the Poincar6inequality inacube(see [6],
p.243),
givesf’ Ill (x) u"l
pdxI
nn+l--q (f’
[Vll(x)l
qdx)P/q (2.5)
where p andq are related by 1 < q < p nq/(n-q); theconstant implicitinthe inequalityisindependentof
Q.
SinceVu (x)
0whenever xR
n\ D,
we seethatif/
> 0,lVu (x)l
qdx Q6"V Q r’IQT
Ofn" IVu (x)[
qdx{diam
(Q1)/d (x)}
qIVu (x)l
qdxQIW, QInQTb.O
_ (diam (_.))flq f, (IVll (X)[ /d
fl(X))
qdx.(2.6)
130 D.E. EDMUNDSandR.HURRI-SYRJ,,NEN
Hence
from(2.4)-(2.6)
wefindfo (lu (x,, /d
dx(IVu (x)l/d (X))
qdx+/-
(IVu (x)l/d (x))
qdx[0.1
in-p/qaw (2.7)
the finalinequality beinga
consequence
of ourassumptionthatfl -or-t-
1 > 0.To
concludetheproof
weusethe following well-knownlemma firstproved
byCarleson[3]
whenp 2 andn 1(see [12]
forthegeneralcase).
LEMMA
2.3Let Qo
beacubeinR
n and supposethat Qi is asequenceof
cubessuch thateachQiiscontained in
Qo and,
Qiln
<constIQ01
letv
Lp (Qo)for
somep (1,cxz).
ThenthereisaconstantC, independentof
v,such thatZ IQilln-P It) (x)l
dx < CIv (x)l
pdx.(2.8)
We
apply this to theQ,
noting that the basichypothesis of the lemma is satisfied sincefor a fixed cubeB,
It)In
diam" (Q)-<_IBI..
QcB,QW QCB,Qel/V
Sincep/q > 1, Carleson’slemma shows that thefight-handside of
(2.7)
canbeestimatedfromabovebyamultipleof(IVu (x)[/d (x))
pdx,and the theoremfollows.
Remark 2.4 (i)When
D
has aLipschitzboundaryit isplain thatR
n\D
satisfiesthe
plumpness
condition, and soinequality(2.2)
holds. Thisresult, underthe additionalassumptionthatfl
> p/
(p 1),was obtainedby Gurka andOpic ([7], Theorem10.4).
Theirpaper
alsocontains sufficient conditions for(2.2)
tohold whenOD
is in the H61der classC,K for sometc(0,
1];and itgives results concerning the inequality
analogous
to(2.2)
but with the left-handsidereplaced byD
lU (X)Iq/d
q(x)
dxforsuitableq.
(ii) Whenot 1
and/
0,(2.1) reduces
tothe Hardy inequality(lu (x)l/d (x))
pdx <Cfo IVu (x)l
pdx, uC (D) (2.9)
mentioned in the Introduction.
As
explained there, the special case of our results, that(2.9)
holds whenR
n\ D
is plump and unboundedand
1 < p < cx,iscontained in thoseofLewis[9]. Note,
however, that inspection ofourproof
shows that the constantC
in(2.9)
may be takentobewhere
p(n-3)+
-l+a(6a)ab-nn7
con
( 1)
1a=p 1--
n 3
and(.On
B (0, 1)In;
ifD
isconvex, then wemaychooseb=
1.In
thisconnection we are informedthatwhen
D
isconvex and hasCboundary,
thenP.
Sobolevski andT.
Matskewich have veryrecently
shown thatthe best constant C in(2.9)
is 1 seealso’On
the bestconstant for Hardy’s inequality’,M. Marcus, V.J.
Mizel,Y.
Pinchover(to appear).
When p n 2 andD
is asector of a circle the best constantCin(2.9)
hasbeen shown byDavies[5]
to be4iftheangle
ofthesector islessthan/30
4.856.Ifwe use theclassical variationalcapacity argument,
Lemma
2.5 below, theHardy inequality(1.1)
follows easily.As
normal, for acompactsubsetE
ofanonemptyopensetD
inR
n we writev6C(D),
0<v< lonDand|cap (E, D)
infIlVvlIoP,
D_ v 1 in anopen neighbourhood
P
of
E
inD.
LEMrA
2.5[6,
Corollary 2.4/Chapter VIII]Let Q
be a cube inR
n anddefine
any uC (D)
tobezero
outsidethedomainD. Let
1 < q < p <n__q_
P
< nIf
q-cap (
t3(Rn\ D) 2Q)
>o,
thenforanyuC(D)
n--q’
132 D.E.EDMUNDSandR.HURRI-SYRJ)NEN
lU(x)l
pdx <c(n’q)
diam(a)n
(fQ )P/q
(q
cap(-
fq(Rn\ - I2Q))
p/qIVu(x)l
qdxUsing
Lemma
2.5andtheproof
ofTheorem2.2 we obtain thefollowing theorem.THEOREM 2.6
Suppose
thatD
is adomain withconstants) > 0,co
> 0 suchthatq
cap (-
fq(Rn\ D), 20)
diam(a)q-n
>_ )(2.10)
for
all cubesQ
Q(y) with centre y OD andO
< diam (Q) <co D 1In. Let
1 _<q < P.<
n_qnq p < n Then thereexistsa constant c > 0 suchthatfor
alluC
(D),lu(x)lP
fo
d(x-3P
dx cIVu(x)l
pdx.Proof We
usethe same notation as in theproof
of Theorem2.2.We
need toverifyonlytheinequalitylu(x)l
pdx diam(Q)-P <
diam(_)n(1-qe) IVu(x)l
qdx(2.11)
where 1 _< q < p_< n--n-q-n_q,p<n,"
otherwise theproof
issimilar totheproof of Theorem 2.2.However, Lemma
2.5and theassumptionof Theorem2.6 immediately yield(2.11):
lu(x)l
pdx diam(Q)-P
<I
q- capc(n’q)(
fqdiam(Rn\D), (O)n-q
int(2))
x diam
()) n(1-q) IVu(x)l
qdxIc(rt’q)l
p/q(f. )P/q
< diam (_)
n(1-q) ]Tu(x)[
qdxZ
Remark 2.7
To
obtainthegeneral
case(1.2)
thecondition(2.10)
should bereplaced
by qcap (-
q(Rn\
D),2Q)
diam(Q)q(-)-n
>.,
where_>0.
3
OTHER CONDITIONS ON THE BOUNDARY OF D
Firstwe establish thefollowingresult:
THEOREM3.1
Let D
be a domain inR
n(n
>1)
andsuppose there are constants s 6(0,1)
andT
> 0 such thatfor
each y OD
and all(0,
T), thereisa k-dimensionalcubeQk,t (Y)
COD, withyak,t (Y)
and7-[k
(Q,t (y))
>stk;
supposealso thatp (1,n)
issuch thatfor
allthese k,n p < k < n- 1. Then thereis a constant C > O such that Hardy’s inequality
(lU (x)l /d (x))
pdx C]O IVu (x)l
pdx, uC (D)
holds.
(3.1)
Our
proofof thistheorem hingesupon
thefollowingtwo lemmas.In
these allcubes are assumed to haveedgesparallelto the coordinate axes inR n,
and the intersection of a cube
Q
inR
n witha k-dimensionalplaneisdenoted byQ’ (1
< k <n),
with theunderstanding thatQn Q.
LEMMA
3.2Let Q
beacubeinR
nand letp (n,cx)
q [1,oe)
Then thereis a constant c c(n,p,q)suchthatfor
everyuW
(Q),lu (x) uat
< c(liu ua[I
q(p-n’/pq,QIlVull,a )p/{np+(p--n)q) (3.2)
for
almost all x inQ.
Proof
The result issimplythespecialcasem 1ofLemma
5.18of[1
], appliedto u ua.
LEMMA
3.3Let Q
beacubeinR n,
let1 <k < nand let0 < n p < k <n.Then thereis a constant c c(n,p,q) suchthat
for
everyuwlp
(Q)(fQ [U
(y) UQ qdy)lie
<_ c(fQ IVu
(y)lpdy)liP (3.3)
where q kp/ (n p)anddy denotesLebesguemeasure on
R .
134 D.E.EDMUNDSandR.HURRI-SYRJfiNEN
Proof
Exactlyas intheproofofLemma
5.19of 1] we findthatfQ lu
(y) UQfQ )
iz(p-v)/(p.)qdy <
lu (x)
UQ qdx(fo IVu (x)l
pdx(3.4)
where v is the
largest
integer less than p,/x(nk_v),)t, (nk21_l)
andqo np/(n p).
By
Poincar6’s inequalityinthecubeQ
we can estimate the termfQ lu (x)
UQ qdx in(3.4)
bymeansoffQ IVu (x)l
pdx,and theresultfollows.
Proof of
Theorem3.1It
isenoughtoprove(3.1)
foruC (D). Let
I/Vbe aWhitney decompositionof
D.
GivenanyQ
l/V,fixxQ OD such thatd(Q, OD)
d(Q, XQ)
fix a cube withXQas centre and such thatQ c
and diam()
c(n)
diam (Q).Theno
(lu (x)l/d (x))P
dx/_ (lu (x)l/d (x))P
dx"<
f
JO(lu(x)l/diam (Q))P
dx.(3.4)
For
eachcube thereisa set",d(a) :=
C OD
such that(’;,d(a)) "
s diam
(9),
wherek (n p, n1].
Since u 0 on,
l
(x)l
pdxf’6 lu (x) ugl
dx.(3.5)
Moreover,
Minkowski’sinequalityand the Poincar6inequalityin acube yield(3.6)
where q np/(p
+ k). Use
of H61der’sinequality gives(3.7)
where
)k
isthe intersectionof and the k-dimensionalplane containing the cubeQk,t (XQ)
for suitablet.From Lemma
3.3 we have(f’,l
u(x) u’
pdxl)lip
<_ c(k,n,p)(f,. IVu (x)l
qdx)l/q (3.8)
where q np/(p
+ k),
p < n and n p < k < n. Combination of(3.4)-(3.8)
nowshowsthat(lu (x)l /d (x))
pdx -.<_
S-1 diam(Q)n-k-p IVu(x)l
qdxs-1 diam
(Q)-k-P ---Ix-p/q,n
QeV;
(f IVu(x)]
qdx)P/q
)"q
"< QVV
_
S-1]_.11-p/q
nIVu(x)]q
dx(3.9)
sincenpq k p 0.As
the)
formasequence
of cubes to which Carleson’s lemma,Lemma
2.3, maybeapplied,itfollows from(3.9)
that(lU (X)l/d (X))
pdx <CfD IVU(x)IP
dxforsomeC C
(k,
n,p)s-1 Theproofiscomplete.A
variant ofTheorem 3.1along
the lines of Theorem 2.2can easily be given.136 D.E. EDMUNDSandR.
HURRI-SYRJNEN
THEOgEM3.4
Let
p(1, n)
andor,/3 R;
letD
beadomaininR
n(n
>1)
and suppose that thereare constants s(0, 1)
andT
>0such thatfor
eachy O
D
and all(0,
T), there isa k-dimensionalcubeQk,t (Y)
CD
withyQk,t (Y), 7@ (ak,t (y))
> stk,
and1 >_ max{O,
ot-1},
n-p<k<_n-1.(3.10)
Then thereis a constantC > 0suchthatfor
all uC (D),
(I. (x)l/ (x))
edx_< c (IV. (x)l/e (x))
dx.Proof
This follows the patternof that of Theorem3.1; justasbeforeand withthe same notation, itfollowsthatL (lu (x)l/d (x))
pdx -<_.
diam(Q)--k-p ll-p/q,n
QeW
)P/q
x
IVu(x)l
qdx(3.12)
whereq np/(p
+ k);
see the inequalities leading up to(3.9).
Under conditions(3.11)
theright-handsideof(3.12)
canbeestimated fromabove byaconstant timesE
diam(Q)-k-ap+p ll-p/q,n ([Vu (x)l/d
E(X))
qdxQsw
)P/q
E Ii 1-p/qn (]Vu (x)l/d
fl(X))
qdxQV
Theresult nowfollowsasbeforeonapplicationof Carleson’s lemma.
Acknowledgements
It
is apleasure
torecord ourthankstoTheRoyal SocietyandtheAcademy ofSciencesofFinlandfor the support giventoR.
Hurri-Syrj/inen.References
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