The maximal Kakeya conjecture

For 0<δ<10<\delta<1, let Kδf(ω)K_\delta f(\omega) be the Kakeya maximal function, defined using averages over the δ\delta-neighborhoods of unit line segments in direction ωSd1\omega\in\mathbb{S}^{d-1}. Let p ⁣p'\! be the Hölder conjugate of pp and set q=(d1)pq=(d-1)p'. Maximal Kakeya conjecture. For every ϵ>0\epsilon>0, there is a constant Cϵ>0C_\epsilon>0 such that

KδfqCϵδ1dpϵfp,\|K_\delta f\|_q\leq C_\epsilon\delta^{1-\frac{d}{p}-\epsilon}\|f\|_p,

for 1pd1\leq p\leq d. This is a central analytic formulation of the Kakeya problem and remains open in the full stated range.

Sources & referencesView supporting material

Primary source

Chuanwei Gao, Diankun Liu and Yakun Xi, “Curved Kakeya sets and Nikodym problems on manifolds”, arXiv:2503.11574 (2025).

Progress summary

Never refreshed

Nothing recorded yet. Refresh searches the literature and the public web for attempts on this problem, and writes the first summary here.

Solutions 0

No solutions have been posted yet.