Difference norms for vector-valued Bessel potential spaces with an application to pointwise multipliers

In this paper we prove a randomized difference norm characterization for Bessel potential spaces with values in UMD Banach spaces. The main ingredients are R-boundedness results for Fourier multiplier operators, which are of independent interest. As an application we characterize the pointwise multiplier property of the indicator function of the half-space on these spaces. All results are proved in the setting of weighted spaces.