A characterization of maximal operators associated with radial Fourier multipliers

We give a simple necessary and sufficient condition for maximal operators associated with radial Fourier multipliers to be bounded on $L^p_{rad}$ and $L^p$ for certain $p$ greater than $2$. The range of exponents obtained for the $L^p_{rad}$ characterization is optimal for the given condition. The $L^p$ characterization is derived from an inequality of Heo, Nazarov, and Seeger regarding a characterization of radial Fourier multipliers.