 L1 bound for a Volterra power-kernel integral

For nonnegative integrable $f$, Tonelli's theorem applied on the triangle $0<y<x<1$ gives the exact identityFor signed or complex integrable $f$, first apply the same calculation to $|f|$ and use the triangle inequality for an integral. The defining integral then exists absolutely for almost every $x$, and the same L1 norm bound holds. The constant $1/\beta$ is sharp: use $f_n=n{1}_{(0,1/n)}$, whose L1 norm is one and whose weighted integrals above tend to $1/\beta$.

Finiteness at every point is stronger than this L1 space assertion. For $0<\beta <1$, take $x_0=1/2$, $\gamma =(1+\beta )/2$, and $f(y)=(x_0-y{)}^{-\gamma }$ on $(0,x_0)$, zero otherwise. It is integrable because $\gamma <1$, but $(V_{\beta }f)(x_0)=\infty$ because the power near $y=x_0$ is $\beta -1-\gamma =(\beta -3)/2<-1$. This is compatible with an integrable output after changing values on a null set.