The space JNp: Nontriviality and duality

We study a function space JNp based on a condition introduced by John and Nirenberg as a variant of BMO. It is known that Lp⊂JNp⊊Lp,∞, but otherwise the structure of JNp is largely a mystery. Our first main result is the construction of a function that belongs to JNp but not Lp, showing that the two spaces are not the same. Nevertheless, we prove that for monotone functions, the classes JNp and Lp do coincide. Our second main result describes JNp as the dual of a new Hardy kind of space HKp′.