Characterizations of Besov and Triebel-Lizorkin Spaces via Averages on Balls

Let $\ell\in\mathbb{N}$ and $p\in(1,\infty]$. In this article, the authors prove that the sequence $\{f-B_{\ell,2^{-k}}f\}_{k\in\mathbb{Z}}$ consisting of the differences between $f$ and the ball average $B_{\ell,2^{-k}}f$ characterizes the Besov space $\dot B^\alpha_{p,q}(\rn)$ with $q\in (0, \infty]$ and the Triebel-Lizorkin space $\dot F^\alpha_{p,q}(\rn)$ with $q\in (1,\infty]$ when the smoothness order $\alpha\in(0,2\ell)$. More precisely, it is proved that $f-B_{\ell,2^{-k}}f$ plays the same role as the approximation to the identity $\varphi_{2^{-k}}\ast f$ appearing in the definitions of $\dot B^\alpha_{p,q}(\rn)$ and $\dot F^\alpha_{p,q}(\rn)$. The corresponding results for inhomogeneous Besov and Triebel-Lizorkin spaces are also obtained. These results, for the first time, give a way to introduce Besov and Triebel-Lizorkin spaces with any smoothness order in $(0, 2\ell)$ on spaces of homogeneous type, where $\ell\in{\mathbb N}$.