Maximal operator on variable exponent spaces

Abstract

We explore the boundedness of the Hardy-Littlewood maximal operator $M$ on variable exponent spaces. Our findings demonstrate that the Muckenhoupt condition, in conjunction with Nekvinda's decay condition, implies the boundedness of $M$ even for unbounded exponents. This extends the results of Lerner, Cruz-Uribe and Fiorenza for bounded exponents. We also introduce a novel argument that allows approximate unbounded exponents by bounded ones while preserving the Muckenhoupt and Nekvinda conditions.