Properties of local orthonormal systems, Part I: Unconditionality in $L^p, 1<p<\infty$

Abstract: Assume that we are given a filtration $(\mathscr F_n)$ on a probability space $(\Omega,\mathscr F,\mathbb P)$ of the form that each $\mathscr F_n$ is generated by the partition of one atom of $\mathscr F_{n-1}$ into two atoms of $\mathscr F_n$ having positive measure. Additionally, assume that we are given a finite-dimensional linear space $S$ of $\mathscr F$-measurable, bounded functions on $\Omega$ so that on each atom $A$ of any $\sigma$-algebra $\mathscr F_n$, all $L^p$-norms of functions in $S$ are comparable independently of $n$ or $A$. Denote by $S_n$ the space of functions that are given locally, on atoms of $\mathscr F_n$, by functions in $S$ and by $P_n$ the orthoprojector (with respect to the inner product in $L^2(\Omega)$) onto $S_n$. Since $S = \operatorname{span}{1_\Omega}$ satisfies the above assumption and $P_n$ is then the conditional expectation $\mathbb E_n$ with respect to $\mathscr F_n$, for such filtrations, martingales $(\mathbb E_n f)$ are special cases of our setting. We show in this article that certain convergence results that are known for martingales (or rather martingale differences) are also true in the general framework described above. More precisely, we show that the differences $(P_n - P_{n-1})f$ converge unconditionally and are democratic in $L^p$ for $1<p<\infty$. This implies that those differences form a greedy basis in $L^p$-spaces for $1<p<\infty$.