The Boundedness of fractional maximal operators on variable Lebesgue spaces over spaces of homogeneous type

Abstract: Given a space of homogeneous type we give sufficient conditions on a variable exponent {p(.)} so that the fractional maximal operator {M_{\eta}} maps {L^{p(.)}(X)} to {L^{q(.)}(X)}, where {1/p(.) - 1/q(.) = {\eta}}. In the endpoint case we also prove the corresponding weak type inequality. As an application we prove norm inequalities for the fractional integral operator {I_{\eta}}. Our proof for the fractional maximal operator uses the theory of dyadic cubes on spaces of homogeneous type, and even in the Euclidean setting it is simpler than existing proofs. For the fractional integral operator we extend a pointwise inequality of Welland to spaces of homogeneous type. Our work generalizes results from the Euclidean case and extends recent work by Adamowicz, et al. on the Hardy-Littlewood maximal operator on spaces of homogeneous type.