This monograph is a presentation of a unified approach to a certain
class of semimartingale inequalities, which can be regarded as
probabilistic extensions of classical estimates for conjugate harmonic
functions on the unit disc. The approach, which has its roots in the
seminal works of Burkholder in the 80s, enables to deduce a given
inequality for semimartingales from the existence of a certain special
function with some convex-type properties. Remarkably, an appropriate
application of the method leads to the sharp version of the estimate
under investigation, which is particularly important for applications.
These include the theory of quasiregular mappings (with deep
implications to the geometric function theory); the boundedness of
two-dimensional Hilbert transform and a more general class of Fourier
multipliers; the theory of rank-one convex and quasiconvex functions;
and more. The book is divided into a few separate parts. In the
introductory chapter we present motivation for the results and relate
them to some classical problems in harmonic analysis. The next part
contains a general description of the method, which is applied in
subsequent chapters to the study of sharp estimates for discrete-time
martingales; discrete-time sub- and supermartingales; continuous time
processes; the square and maximal functions. Each chapter contains
additional bibliographical notes included for reference.