Sharp bounds for composition with quasiconformal mappings in Sobolev spaces

Abstract

Let $\phi$ be a quasiconformal mapping, and let $T_\phi$ be the composition operator which maps $f$ to $f\circ\phi$. Since $\phi$ may not be bi-Lipschitz, the composition operator need not map Sobolev spaces to themselves. The study begins with the behavior of $T_\phi$ on $L^p$ and $W^{1,p}$ for $1<p<\infty$. This cases are well understood but alternative proofs of some known results are provided. Using interpolation techniques it is seen that compactly supported Bessel potential functions in $H^{s,p}$ are sent to $H^{s,q}$ whenever $0<s<1$ for appropriate values of $q$. The techniques used lead to sharp results and they can be applied to Besov spaces as well.