Schatten properties of commutators and equivalent Sobolev norms on metric spaces

Abstract: We characterise the Schatten class $S^p$ properties of commutators $[b,T]$ of singular integrals and pointwise multipliers in a general framework of (quasi-)metric measure spaces. This covers, unifies, and extends a range of previous results in different special cases. As in the classical results on $\mathbb R^d$, the characterisation has three parts: (1) For $p>d$, we have $[b,T]\in S^p$ if and only if $b$ is in suitable Besov (or fractional Sobolev) space. (2) For $p\leq d$, we have $[b,T]\in S^p$ if and only if $b$ is constant. (3) For $p=d$, we have $[b,T]\in S^{d,\infty}$ (a weak-type Schatten class) if and only if $b$ is in a first-order Sobolev space. Result (1) is very general and extends to all spaces of homogeneous type as long as there are appropriate singular integrals, while extensions of (2) and (3) are proved for complete doubling metric spaces supporting a suitable Poincar\'e inequality. For the proof of (3), we extend a recent derivative-free characterisation of the Sobolev space $\dot W^{1,p}(\mathbb R^d)$ by R. Frank to the general domains that we consider; this is our second main result of independent interest.