On the regularity of maximal operators

We study the regularity of the bilinear maximal operator when applied to Sobolev functions, proving that it maps $W^{1,p}(\mathbb{R}) \times W^{1,q}(\mathbb{R}) \to W^{1,r}(\mathbb{R})$ with $1 <p,q < \infty$ and $r\geq 1$, boundedly and continuously. The same result holds on $\mathbb{R}^n$ when $r>1$. We also investigate the almost everywhere and weak convergence under the action of the classical Hardy-Littlewood maximal operator, both in its global and local versions.