Harmonic Functions and Mass Cancellation

Abstract

If a function on an open set in ${\textbf {R}^n}$ has the mean value property for one ball at each point of the domain, the function will be said to possess the restricted mean value property. (The ordinary or unrestricted mean value property requires that the mean value property hold for every ball in the domain.) We specify the single ball at each point x by its radius $\delta (x)$, a function of x. Under appropriate conditions on $\delta$ and the function, the restricted mean value property implies that the function is harmonic, giving a converse to the mean value theorem (see references). In the present paper a converse to the mean value theorem is proved, in which the function $\delta$ is well behaved, but the function is only required to be nonnegative. A converse theorem for more general means than averages over balls is also obtained. These results extend theorems of D. Heath, W. Veech, and the author (see references). Some connections are also pointed out between converse mean value theorems and mass cancellation.