Sparse domination modulo polynomials

Abstract

We develop a sparse domination theory that captures both local polynomial approximation and cancellation of the input below the scale of each sparse cube. Its coefficients are percentiles of localized smooth maximal functions of the input minus its local polynomial approximation, combining features of mean-oscillation sparse bounds and of the cancellative sparse bounds of Conde-Alonso, Lorist and Rey. Using wavelet representations, we characterize the Calderón-Zygmund operators whose derivatives admit these bounds by explicit polynomial testing conditions. In the homogeneous setting, the same conditions characterize weighted Hardy-Sobolev inequalities with linear dependence on the $A_\infty$ characteristic. This quantitative dependence detects the transition from BMO to $L^\infty$ testing conditions that Lerner found for pointwise bounds by Riesz potentials, a distinction that qualitative weighted estimates cannot recover. In the inhomogeneous setting, we prove corresponding weighted inequalities and show that they are strictly weaker than pointwise sparse domination from the second derivative order onward. Consequences include Hardy-Sobolev estimates below the Banach range, sharp weighted Sobolev inequalities, and pointwise bounds by Riesz potentials.