We study the decay of approximation numbers of compact composition operators on the Dirichlet space. We give upper and lower bounds for these numbers. In particular, we improve on a result of El-Fallah, Kellay, Shabankhah and Youssfi, on the set of contact points with the unit circle of a compact symbolic composition operator acting on the Dirichlet space $\mathcal{D}$ . We extend their results in two directions: first, the contact only takes place at the point 1. Moreover, the approximation numbers of the operator can be arbitrarily subexponentially small.

We prove that if f is a distribution on RN with N>1 and if ∂jf∈Lpj,σj∩LN,1uloc with 1≤pj≤N and σj=1 when pj=1 or N, then f is bounded, continuous and has a finite constant radial limit at infinity. Here, Lp,σ is the classical Lorentz space and Lp,σuloc is a “uniformly local” subspace of Lp,σloc larger than Lp,σ when p<∞. We also show that f∈BUC if, in addition, ∂jf∈Lpj,σj∩Lquloc with q>N whenever pj<N and that, if so, the limit of f at infinity is uniform if the pj are suitably distributed. Only a few special cases have been considered in the literature, under much more restrictive assumptions that do not involve uniformly local spaces (pj=N and f vanishing at infinity, or ∂jf∈Lp∩Lq with p<N<q). Various similar results hold under integrability conditions on the higher order derivatives of f. All of them are applicable to g∗f with g∈L1 and f as above, or under weaker assumptions on f and stronger ones on g. When g is a Bessel kernel, the results are provably optimal in some cases.

We derive an integral representation for Herglotz-Nevanlinna functions in two variables, which provides a complete characterization of this class in terms of a real number, two non-negative numbers and a positive measure satisfying certain conditions. Further properties of the class of representing measures are also discussed.

It is shown for the non-centered Hardy–Littlewood maximal operator M that ∥DMf∥1≤Cn∥Df∥1 for all radial functions in W1,1(Rn).

The analyticity of the Stokes semigroup with the Dirichlet boundary condition is established in spaces of bounded functions when the domain occupied with fluid is bounded or more generally admissible which admits a special estimate for the Helmholtz decomposition. The proof is based on a blow-up argument. This is the first proof of the analyticity in spaces of bounded functions which was left open more than thirty years.