Convolution inequality $\|f\star g\|_p \le \|f\|_1 \|g\|_p$ on locally compact group

fourier analysisharmonic-analysismeasure-theory

Consider the following fragment from Folland's book "A course in abstract harmonic analysis". Here $G$ is a locally compact Hausdorff group and the $L^p$-spaces are considered w.r.t. a left Haar measure on $G$.

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The proof of proposition 2.40 applies Minkowski's integral inequality, however the proofs of Minkowski's integral inequality I know make crucial use of the fact that the measure spaces involved are $\sigma$-finite. However, $G$ with the left Haar measure is $\sigma$-finite if and only if $G$ is $\sigma$-compact, which is not an assumption here.

How can I solve this technicality? Perhaps I can make use of the fact that if $f \in L^1(G)$, then $f$ vanishes outside a $\sigma$-finite set and similarly for $g \in L^p(G)$ with $p < \infty$. Can someone fill in the details? And shouldn't the case $p=\infty$ be dealt with on its own?

Best Answer

This is to address only the case $p=\infty$.

Let $\lambda$ be a Haar measure (left invariant) on the locally compact Hausdorff topological group $G$. Let $f\in L_1(\lambda)$ and $g\in L_\infty(\lambda)$. Then $$f*g(x):=\int_G f(y)g(y^{-1}x)\lambda(dy)=\int_G f(xy)g(y^{-1})\,\lambda(dy)$$ If $\phi(y):=g(y^{-1})$, notice that $|\phi(y)|\leq\|g\|_{\infty}$ for $\lambda$-a.s $y\in G$ (the measure $\rho(A)=\lambda(A^{-1})$ preserves sets of measure zero, in fact $\rho(dy)=\triangle(y^{-1})\lambda(dy)$, where $\triangle$ is the modular function). From this, it follows that $$|f*g(x)|\leq\|g\|_\infty\int_G|f(xy)|\,\lambda(dy)=\|g\|_\infty\|f\|_1$$


Comment: With a little more effort one can probe that in fact $f*g\in\mathcal{C}(G)$.