On functions of bounded β-dimensional mean oscillation

In this paper, we define a notion of $\beta$-dimensional mean oscillation of functions $u: Q_0 \subset \mathbb{R}^d \to \mathbb{R}$ which are integrable on $\beta$-dimensional subsets of the cube $Q_0$: \begin{align*} \|u\|_{BMO^{\beta}(Q_0)}:= \sup_{Q \subset Q_0} \inf_{c \in \mathbb{R}} \frac{1}{l(Q)^\beta} \int_{Q} |u-c| \;d\mathcal{H}^{\beta}_\infty, \end{align*} where the supremum is taken over all finite subcubes $Q$ parallel to $Q_0$, $l(Q)$ is the length of the side of the cube $Q$, and $\mathcal{H}^{\beta}_\infty$ is the Hausdorff content. In the case $\beta=d$ we show this definition is equivalent to the classical notion of John and Nirenberg, while our main result is that for every $\beta\in (0,d]$ one has a dimensionally appropriate analogue of the John-Nirenberg inequality for functions with bounded $\beta$-dimensional mean oscillation: There exist constants $c,C>0$ such that \begin{align*} \mathcal{H}^{\beta}_\infty \left(\{x\in Q:|u(x)-c_Q|>t\}\right) \leq C l(Q)^\beta \exp(-ct/\|u\|_{BMO^\beta(Q_0)}) \end{align*} for every $t>0$, $u \in BMO^\beta(Q_0)$, $Q\subset Q_0$, and suitable $c_Q \in \mathbb{R}$. Our proof relies on the establishment of capacitary analogues of standard results in integration theory that may be of independent interest.