On a Conjecture of EM Stein on the Hilbert Transform on Vector Fields

Let $v$ be a smooth vector field on the plane, that is a map from the plane to the unit circle. We study sufficient conditions for the boundedness of the Hilbert transform \operatorname H_{v, \epsilon}f(x) := \text{p.v.}\int_{-\epsilon}^ \epsilon f(x-yv(x)) \frac{dy}y where $\epsilon$ is a suitably chosen parameter, determined by the smoothness properties of the vector field. It is a conjecture, due to E.\thinspace M.\thinspace Stein, that if $v$ is Lipschitz, there is a positive $\epsilon$ for which the transform above is bounded on $L ^{2}$. Our principal result gives a sufficient condition in terms of the boundedness of a maximal function associated to $v$. This sufficient condition is that this new maximal function be bounded on some $L ^{p}$, for some $1<p<2$. We show that the maximal function is bounded from $L ^{2}$ to weak $L ^{2}$ for all Lipschitz maximal function. The relationship between our results and other known sufficient conditions is explored.Comment: 92 pages, 20+ figures. Final version of the paper. To appear in Memoirs AM