Journal of Mathematical Analysis and Applications 252, 989᎐993 Ž2000.

doi:10.1006rjmaa.2000.6961, available online at http:rrwww.idealibrary.com on

NOTE

Hardy’s Inequality in Several Variables

Sh. Salem,* Zareen A. A. Khan,* and Ray Redheffer †

* Department of Mathematics, Girls College of Education, Al-Riyadh, Saudi Arabia;

†
Department of Mathematics, Uni¨ ersity of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles,
California 90095

Submitted by A. M. Fink

Received May 6, 1999

We extend Hardy’s discrete inequality to multiple series. For an r-fold series the
correct constant is Ž c p . r , where c p is the constant in Hardy’s original theorem. This
constant is optimum and the inequality is strict unless all variables in it are 0.
䊚 2000 Academic Press

Let p ) 1, a j G 0, and

n p
1 p
An s
n
Ý
js1
aj , cp s ž py1 / .

Hardy’s inequality w3, 4x states that

⬁ ⬁
Ý A np F c p Ý a jp Ž 1.
ns1 js1

and that the constant c p is the best possible. The inequality is strict unless
all a i s 0. Many proofs of this have been given, of which one of the
simplest is in w12x.
Keeping p ) 1 and c p as above, our principal object is to generalize
Hardy’s inequality to r-fold multiple series. The generalization for double
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990 NOTE

series runs as follows: With a i j G 0 let

1 m n
Am n s
mn
Ý Ý ai j .
is1 js1

Then
⬁ ⬁ ⬁ ⬁
2
Ý Ý A mp n F Ž c p . Ý Ý aipj . Ž 2.
ms1 ns1 is1 js1

For triple series the corresponding result holds with Ž c p . 3 and for r-fold
series with Ž c p . r. The constant Ž c p . r is sharp and the inequality is strict
unless all a i j s 0.
The fact that the correct constant in Ž2. is Ž c p . 2 could be, at first,
surprising. The rectangular array of numbers a i j for i F m and j F n can
be enumerated as a k , for example, by the corner-clipping enumeration
a1 s a11 , a2 s a12 , a3 s a21 , a4 s a13 , . . .

When this is done the double series becomes a single series. The number
of elements in it is N s mn, hence

1 n m 1 N
Am n s
mn
Ý Ý ai j s
N
Ý ak .
is1 js1 ks1

The possibility of a similar formulation for the other series suggests that
Ž2. might be merely a rewriting of Ž1., so that the constant would be c p
rather than Ž c p . 2 . Our work shows that this is not the case.
Proof. To avoid trouble about convergence we replace the upper limit
of all summations by finite quantities L on the left and R on the right. If
the right-hand series in Ž2. and its analog for r ) 2 diverge there is
nothing to prove, and if they converge the desired result is obtained by
letting first R ª ⬁ and then L ª ⬁. For simplicity we do not build this
refinement into the notation, but continue to write the upper limits as ⬁.
We now prove Ž2.. For fixed i let

1 n
Bi n s
n
Ý ai j .
js1

With the role of A n taken by Bi n and that of a j taken by a i j , Eq. Ž1. gives
⬁ ⬁
Ý Bipn F c p Ý aipj .
ns1 js1
 NOTE 991

For fixed n we set

1 m
Am n s
m
Ý Bi n .
is1

With the role of A m taken by A m n and that of a i taken by Bi n , Eq. Ž1.

states that
⬁ ⬁
Ý A mp n F c p Ý Bipn .
ms1 is1

These two results together give

⬁ ⬁ ⬁ ⬁ ⬁ ⬁ ⬁ ⬁
Ý Ý A mp n F c p Ý Ý Bipn s c p Ý Ý Bipn F c p Ý c p Ý aipj ,
ns1 ms1 ns1 is1 is1 ns1 is1 js1

which is equivalent to Ž2..

To state and prove the result for r-fold series we need an efficient
notation. Let i and m denote vectorical indices,

i s Ž i1 , i 2 , . . . , i r . , m s Ž m1 , m 2 , . . . , m r . .

The parentheses and commas are introduced for clarity and play no role
when we form the real numbers a i G 0. We introduce the further abbrevi-
ations
m m1 m2 mr

Ý s Ý Ý ⭈⭈⭈ Ý
is1 i 1s1 i 2s1 i rs1

with a corresponding interpretation for the sum from i s 1 to ⬁. In

particular,
⬁ ⬁ ⬁ ⬁
Ý s Ý Ý ⭈⭈⭈ Ý .
ms1 m 1s1 m 2s1 m rs1

The indices i j and m j take positive integral values. We define also

1 1
s .
m m1 m 2 ⭈⭈⭈ m r

With these conventions the expression

1 m
Am s
m
Ý ai
is1
992 NOTE

denotes an r-fold average corresponding, in the case r s 2, to A m n above.

The following version of Hardy’s inequality is the main goal of our
investigation:
⬁ ⬁
r
Ý A mp F Ž c p . Ý aip .
ms1 is1

For proof, we assume that this holds for r and deduce it for r q 1. Since
the case r s 1 is Hardy’s original inequality, the result follows by mathe-
matical induction. Suppose, then, that a i j G 0, where i is a vectorial index
as above and the last index j is a scalar. For fixed i and n we define
1 n
Bi n s
n
Ý ai j .
js1

Then Hardy’s inequality in its original scalar case yields

⬁ ⬁
Ý Bipn F c p Ý aipj . Ž 3.
ns1 js1

With m and i vectors and n a fixed scalar we define

1 m
Am n s
m
Ý Bi n .
is1

For each n this is an r-fold average. The induction hypothesis yields

⬁ ⬁
r
Ý A mp n F Ž c p . Ý Bipn Ž 4.
ms1 is1

and with Ž3. this gives

⬁ ⬁ ⬁ ⬁ ⬁ ⬁
r r
Ý Ý A mp n F Ž c p . Ý Ý Bipn F Ž c p . Ý c p Ý aipj .
ns1 ms1 ns1 is1 is1 js1

This is Hardy’s inequality for the case r q 1 and completes the proof.
Concluding Remarks. If at least one value a i ) 0 then the inequality is
strict because this holds for Hardy’s inequality in its original form. That is,
at least one of the inequalities used in the derivation is strict and hence
they are strict in combination.
To see that the constant is sharp we set
y1 rp y1rp y1rp
ai s Ž i1 . Ž i2 . ⭈⭈⭈ Ž i r .
 NOTE 993

so long as each i j F N, and otherwise a i s 0. The sums break up into a

product of sum which can be paired in an obvious way. If ⑀ ) 0 and N is
large enough the reverse inequality with c p replaced by c p y ⑀ holds for
each pair w4x, so the whole reversed inequality holds with Ž c p y ⑀ . r. This
shows that the constant is sharp. An alternative proof can be given by
induction, following the pattern of the main theorem.
Further inequalities with structure similar to Hardy’s appear in the
accompanying references; see in particular w7, 12, 13x. It is left for the
reader to explore the possibility of extending these to multiple series after
the manner described here.

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