Hardy space 2026-10-14
For , an analytic Hardy space controls the integral means of a holomorphic function as it approaches a domain boundary. On the disk, requires ; on the upper half-plane it requires . For use a supremum norm. These analytic spaces differ from the harmonic Hardy space of the upper half-space; the Hardy space of the circle is the boundary Hilbert-space realization of the disk space.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2004 iii Paper 7 1 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
A harmonic function on is a twice continuously differentiable function satisfying there. For complex-valued functions this means that both its real part and its imaginary part are harmonic functions. The mean value property for harmonic functions characterizes harmonicity: a continuous function is harmonic exactly when its value at each point equals its average over every sphere, or equivalently every ball, whose closed ball lies in . In the forward direction, the derivative of the spherical average vanishes by the divergence theorem. Conversely, radial smoothing leaves a continuous function with the mean value property unchanged locally; it is therefore smooth. Expanding its small-ball average gives in dimension , and hence .
Write and for the volume of the unit ball in . We first obtain a pointwise estimate directly from the mean value property for harmonic functions, before using any boundary representation. For the ball of radius centered at ,Thus every upward shift of is a bounded harmonic function, with a continuous bounded boundary value.
The required map is the Poisson integralThe Poisson kernel for the upper half-space is positive, has integral one, and is harmonic as a function of . Its normalization follows by polar coordinates and , which reduces the radial integral to ; direct differentiation gives . Differentiation under the integral on compact subsets proves that is a harmonic function. Tonelli theorem givesHere the total variation norm of a measure is the norm on finite signed or complex Borel measures.
The Poisson kernel for the upper half-space is an approximate identity: for , uniformly. Indeed, uniform continuity controls translations smaller than a fixed radius, and the kernel mass outside that radius tends to zero. ConsequentlyThe dual characterization of the total variation norm of a measure, as the supremum over of supremum norm at most one, now gives the reverse inequality . Thus is a linear isometry and is injective.
For surjectivity, fix and put . Bounded harmonic uniqueness in the upper half-space givesTo justify this uniqueness, subtract the Poisson integral of the bounded continuous boundary value from the upward-shifted harmonic function. Their difference is bounded and harmonic and has zero continuous boundary values. Its odd reflection across the boundary is an entire bounded harmonic function; the reflection is harmonic across the flat boundary by harmonic odd reflection across a hyperplane. The Liouville theorem for harmonic functions makes it constant, and oddness makes it zero. The initial pointwise estimate supplies the boundedness needed here. To see the reflection locally, take a ball centered on the hyperplane and extend the boundary data on its upper hemisphere oddly to its lower hemisphere. The harmonic solution on this ball is odd and zero on its equatorial disk. The maximum principle for harmonic functions identifies it with the given difference on the upper half-ball, proving that the reflected function is harmonic across the boundary.
Choose . The measures have total variation norm of a measure at most . By the Banach-Alaoglu theorem, and separability of , a subsequence converges in the weak-star topology to a finite measure with . For fixed and ,The kernels in this display belong to and converge uniformly to . The uniform measure norm bound therefore allows passage to the limit, giving . This proves the Poisson representation of harmonic h1 by finite measures, including onto-ness.
Finally , so the Poisson representation of harmonic h1 by finite measures improves the preliminary pointwise constant:The last occurrence of in the printed question is understood as the harmonic Hardy space of the upper half-space defined earlier in that question.
The Poisson kernel for the upper half-space gives an isometric bijection from finite real or complex Borel measures, with their total variation norm of a measure, onto the harmonic Hardy space of the upper half-space. The kernel has unit mass, so Tonelli theorem gives the upper norm bound. Its approximate identity property gives weak-star convergence to the original measure and hence the reverse norm bound. For surjectivity, the mean value property for harmonic functions bounds each shifted harmonic function; bounded harmonic uniqueness gives . A weak-star limit of the uniformly bounded measures then gives the required boundary measure. In particular , where .