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Let $f \in L^1 (\mathbb R)$. Suppose $g_n \in L^1 (\mathbb R)$ are a sequence of positive functions.

Define, for each $n$, the function $f_n$ by

$$f_n (x) := \frac{1}{2g_n (x)} \int_{x - g_n (x)}^{x + g_n (x)} f(y) \, dy.$$

Question: Is it true that if $g_n \to 0$ in weak $L^1$ norm, then $f_n \to f$ in $L^1$ strong?

Remark: Implicit here is that one has to prove the $f_n$ are all eventually in $L^1$.

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The answer is negative even if $f$ is supported in $[0,1]$ and $g_n \to 0$ uniformly in $[0,1]$. The reason is that $f \in L^1$ does not suffice for the Hardy-Littlewood maximal function to be in $L^1$, so choosing $g_n$ to capture that maximal function will yield a counterexample. It is still useful to see an explicit counterexample. I will add that next.

For $x \in (0,1]$, let $$f(x)=\frac1{x \cdot \log^2(2/x)}\,,$$ with $f(x)=0$ for all $x \notin (0,1]$. Then $f$ is in $L^1[0,1]$. Define $g_n(x)= \min\{x,1/n\}$ for $x \in (0,1]$, with $g_n(x)=\frac1{n(x^2+1)}$ for $x \notin [0,1]$. Then

$$f_n (x) := \frac{1}{2g_n (x)} \int_{x - g_n (x)}^{x + g_n (x)} f(y) \, dy$$ satisfies $$f_n(x)=\frac{1}{2x\log(2/x)} \quad \text{for all} \quad x \in (0,1/n)\,,$$ so $f_n \notin L^1[0,1]$.

Remark If we assume that $f\log_+(f) \in L^1$ then the answer to the original question is positive, because in that case The Hardy-Littlewood maximal function is in $L^1$, so one can appeal to dominated convergence. See, e.g., Theorem 3.4 in this paper.

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  • $\begingroup$ Interesting, I would’ve thought $g_n \to 0$ uniformly would cause you to be unable to capture the maximal function, since most of the points don’t get to “do what they want”. Looking forward to the counterexample! $\endgroup$
    – Nate River
    Commented Jul 17, 2022 at 16:31
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    $\begingroup$ Very nice, I would not have come up with a function like that myself! $\endgroup$
    – Nate River
    Commented Jul 17, 2022 at 23:57
  • $\begingroup$ I guess this works because the sup in the maximal function is realised closer and closer to $0$ as $x \to 0$. Furthermore for the failure to be in $L^1$ it needs only not be locally integrable near a point (in this case $0$). $\endgroup$
    – Nate River
    Commented Jul 18, 2022 at 0:00

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