The local Tb theorem with rough test functions

Abstract

We prove a local $Tb$ theorem under close to minimal (up to certain `buffering') integrability assumptions, conjectured by S. Hofmann (El Escorial, 2008): Every cube is assumed to support two non-degenerate functions $b^1_Q\in L^p$ and $b^2_Q\in L^q$ such that $1_{2Q}Tb^1_Q\in L^{q'}$ and $1_{2Q}T^*b^2_Q\in L^{p'}$, with appropriate uniformity and scaling of the norms. This is sufficient for the $L^2$-boundedness of the Calderon-Zygmund operator $T$, for any $p,q\in(1,\infty)$, a result previously unknown for simultaneously small values of $p$ and $q$. We obtain this as a corollary of a local $Tb$ theorem for the maximal truncations $T_{\#}$ and $(T^*)_{\#}$: for the $L^2$-boundedness of $T$, it suffices that $1_Q T_{\#}b^1_Q$ and $1_Q (T^*)_{\#}b^2_Q$ be uniformly in $L^0$. The proof builds on the technique of suppressed operators from the quantitative Vitushkin conjecture due to Nazarov-Treil-Volberg.