New estimates for the maximal singular integral

Abstract

In this paper we pursue the study of the problem of controlling the maximal singular integral $T^{*}f$ by the singular integral $Tf$. Here $T$ is a smooth homogeneous Calder\'on-Zygmund singular integral of convolution type. We consider two forms of control, namely, in the $L^2(\Rn)$ norm and via pointwise estimates of $T^{*}f$ by $M(Tf)$ or $M^2(Tf)$, where $M$ is the Hardy-Littlewood maximal operator and $M^2=M \circ M$ its iteration. It is known that the parity of the kernel plays an essential role in this question. In a previous article we considered the case of even kernels and here we deal with the odd case. Along the way, the question of estimating composition operators of the type $T^\star \circ T$ arises. It turns out that, again, there is a remarkable difference between even and odd kernels. For even kernels we obtain, quite unexpectedly, weak $(1,1)$ estimates, which are no longer true for odd kernels. For odd kernels we obtain sharp weaker inequalities involving a weak $L^1$ estimate for functions in $L LogL$.