Balayage, equilibrium measure, and Deny's principle of positivity of mass for $\alpha$-Green potentials

Abstract

In the theory of $g_\alpha$-potentials on a domain $D\subset\mathbb R^n$, $n\geqslant2$, $g_\alpha$ being the $\alpha$-Green kernel associated with the $\alpha$-Riesz kernel $|x-y|^{\alpha-n}$ of order $\alpha\in(0,n)$, $\alpha\leqslant2$, we establish the existence and uniqueness of the $g_\alpha$-balayage $\mu^F$ of a positive Radon measure $\mu$ onto a relatively closed set $F\subset D$, we analyze its alternative characterizations, and we provide necessary and/or sufficient conditions for $\mu^F(D)=\mu(D)$ to hold, given in terms of the $\alpha$-harmonic measure of suitable Borel subsets of $\overline{\mathbb R^n}$, the one-point compactification of $\mathbb R^n$. As a by-product, we find necessary and/or sufficient conditions for the existence of the $g_\alpha$-equilibrium measure $\gamma_F$, $\gamma_F$ being understood in an extended sense where $\gamma_F(D)$ might be infinite. We also discover quite a surprising version of Deny's principle of positivity of mass for $g_\alpha$-potentials, thereby significantly improving a previous result by Fuglede and Zorii (Ann. Acad. Sci. Fenn. Math., 2018). The results thus obtained are sharp, which is illustrated by means of a number of examples. Some open questions are also posed.