For an analytic H1 space on the unit disk function, its fixed-aperture non-tangential maximal function obeys the displayed strong bound. First replace by , . The fact that modulus powers of holomorphic functions are subharmonic gives . Since a Poisson maximal function is dominated by the Hardy-Littlewood maximal function, the strong Hardy-Littlewood maximal inequality yields . Pointwise interior convergence and the Fatou lemma remove . Analyticity permits this endpoint estimate; general boundary data have only a weak maximal bound.
We prove sufficiency by a non-tangential maximal function and the layer cake representation. Write . First : three hyperbolic geodesic caps corresponding to arcs of normalized length , with equally spaced centers, cover the unit disc. This handles interior points and large arcs, not only a thin boundary strip.
Fix aperture two and set . The crucial H1 non-tangential maximal inequality on the disk is
Here is its endpoint proof. For let , which is holomorphic across the closed unit disc. Since modulus powers of holomorphic functions are subharmonic, Poisson comparison gives
The estimate that a Poisson maximal function is dominated by the Hardy-Littlewood maximal function yields . The strong Hardy-Littlewood maximal inequality now gives
For each interior point , hence . The Fatou lemma proves the maximal inequality. This uses a genuine maximal bound; the Hardy-Littlewood maximal function is not strongly bounded on .
For , the set is open, since each interior point witnessing this strict inequality has an open boundary shadow. Write its disjoint arc components as . If and , the arc centered at with angular half-width lies in , because there. Thus it lies in one component , and has angular projection in with . The geodesic-cap and Carleson-box comparison puts all such points in for a fixed enlargement factor whenever is small. For large , use . If or is the entire circle, that same total-mass estimate applies. Summing, without needing the enlarged caps to be disjoint, gives
The layer cake representation and the proved H1 non-tangential maximal inequality on the disk finish the argument:
Thus the two conditions are equivalent, with their least admissible constants comparable: and . This is the Carleson embedding theorem on the disk, proved at the analytic endpoint.
Put . The goal is to obtain an integrable non-tangential maximal function without assuming in advance that has an integrable boundary density. We use a square root to place the boundary data in , where the Hardy-Littlewood maximal function is strongly bounded.
First recall this strong bound directly from Q2. For a nonnegative and , split . The second summand has centered maximal function at most ; the first is in . Q2's weak estimate, in dimension one, therefore gives
The layer cake representation and Tonelli theorem then imply
This is the needed Strong Lp bound for the Hardy-Littlewood maximal function, with an explicit adequate constant.
For , let and . Q1's elementary harmonic pointwise estimate makes bounded on the closed upper half-plane. Its boundary value is continuous, and . The function is subharmonic: away from zeros, for any ,
and regularization, or the submean inequality at zeros, extends this to the whole domain. Bounded subharmonic comparison with the Poisson integral gives
Here need not be in . The Poisson integral is nevertheless defined, since and , and it tends to its continuous boundary values. To justify comparison on this unbounded domain, the difference between the two sides is bounded above, subharmonic, and zero on the real boundary. On an upper half-disk of radius , use the positive harmonic barrier
On its semicircular arc, , while for every fixed interior as . The maximum principle for subharmonic functions, with a fixed bound for the difference, proves the comparison. The barrier's positive blow-up at the arc endpoints causes no difficulty.
For , the elementary inequality gives
Q2's radial decreasing kernel domination by the maximal function extends to nonnegative inputs by applying it to increasing bounded compactly supported truncations. Hence, taking the supremum over the cone,
For any fixed cone point, as . Therefore ; use a sequence of positive shifts and the Fatou lemma to conclude
The precise numerical constant is unimportant. Suprema over countable dense sets of cone points give the same values, so the maximal functions used here are measurable.
This yields boundary absolute continuity of measures rather than assuming it. The holomorphic function is a complex-valued harmonic function, so Q1 represents it as for a finite complex measure , with weak-star. Since , every compactly supported continuous satisfies
The dual characterization of the total variation measure implies , so the Radon-Nikodym theorem gives with . The approximate identity now gives in the L1 norm and almost everywhere. Thus the analytic Hardy space has an integrable boundary function, unlike the unrestricted harmonic space.
In the real-line form of the F. and M. Riesz theorem, start with a finite complex measure whose Fourier transform of a finite measure vanishes for . Its Poisson integral is holomorphic: the transformed operators and act by and , which agree on that spectrum. These identities can first be read as distributional identities and then classically, since the Poisson integral is smooth. Its harmonic norm is finite by Q1, so the preceding argument makes the measure absolutely continuous. A one-sided Fourier spectrum forces a finite boundary measure to have a Lebesgue density.
For the customary circle form, normalize arc length by . If for , then
is analytic and is the Poisson integral on the unit disk of . Positivity and unit mass of the Poisson kernel on the circle imply . The same square-root argument on the disk gives an integrable radial maximum, as follows. For , put . The maximum principle for subharmonic functions on the disk gives
The supremum of these Poisson integrals is bounded by a constant times the circular Hardy-Littlewood maximal function. Indeed, for the circular kernel is bounded by a constant times for ; splitting into arcs of radii gives a summable geometric series of arc averages. For the kernel is uniformly bounded, and the whole-circle average suffices. The covering proof and the truncation argument already used on the line give the strong maximal bound for arcs on the circle as well. Thus
Let and apply Fatou lemma to obtain an integrable radial maximum . The measures tend weak-star to and are dominated in magnitude by . The same continuous-test-function argument gives . This proves the F. and M. Riesz theorem: a finite complex measure on the circle with all negative Fourier coefficients zero is absolutely continuous with respect to arc length. Reversing the Fourier convention interchanges positive and negative indices.
Stolz region 2026-10-14
A fixed-aperture approach region at a boundary point of the unit disc. Its points approach the boundary point without becoming tangent to the circle. Convergence inside every such fixed region is a nontangential limit; the corresponding supremum defines a non-tangential maximal function.