Maximal function characterizations of Hardy spaces on RD-spaces and their applications

Let X be an RD-space, i.e., a space of homogeneous type in the sense of Coifman and Weiss, which has the reverse doubling property. Assume that X has a “dimension” n. For α ∈ (0, ∞) denote by H (X), H d (X), and H *,p (X) the corresponding Hardy spaces on X defined by the nontangential maximal function, the dyadic maximal function and the grand maximal function, respectively. Using a new inhomogeneous Calderón reproducing formula, it is shown that all these Hardy spaces coincide with L p (X) when p ∈ (1,∞] and with each other when p ∈ (n/(n + 1), 1]. An atomic characterization for H ∗,p (X) with p ∈ (n/(n + 1), 1] is also established; moreover, in the range p ∈ (n/(n + 1),1], it is proved that the space H *,p (X), the Hardy space H p (X) defined via the Littlewood-Paley function, and the atomic Hardy space of Coifman andWeiss coincide. Furthermore, it is proved that a sublinear operator T uniquely extends to a bounded sublinear operator from H p (X) to some quasi-Banach space B if and only if T maps all (p, q)-atoms when q ∈ (p, ∞)∩[1, ∞) or continuous (p, ∞)-atoms into uniformly bounded elements of B.