Inclusion Relations Among Fractional Orlicz-Sobolev Spaces and a Littlewood-Paley Characterization

Abstract Embeddings among fractional Orlicz-Sobolev spaces with different smoothness are characterized. In particular, besides recovering standard embeddings for classical fractional Sobolev spaces, novel results are derived in borderline situations where the latter fail. For instance, limiting embeddings of Pohozhaev-Trudinger-Yudovich type into exponential spaces are offered. The equivalence of Gagliardo-Slobodeckij norms in fractional Orlicz-Sobolev spaces to norms defined via Littlewood-Paley decompositions, oscillations, or Besov type difference quotients is established as well. This equivalence, of independent interest, is a key tool in the proof of the relevant embeddings. They also rest upon a new optimal inequality for convolutions in Orlicz spaces.