Two remarks on liftings of maps with values into \(S^1\). (Q857083): Difference between revisions

Let \(\Omega \subset\mathbb R^d \) be an open set with a smooth boundary and \( u:x\in\Omega\to u(x)\in S^1\) be a measurable function. This paper deals with liftings of \(u\), i.e., measurable functions \(\varphi:\Omega \to \mathbb R\) such that \(u(x)=e^{i\varphi(x)}\) a.e.\ in \(\Omega\). In the first part of the paper, \(\Omega=I=(0,1)\). Let \(s,p\) be such that \( 0<s<1<p\) and \(sp>1\). Let \(u\in W^{s,p}(I,S^{1})\). Thanks to the Sobolev imbedding theorem, \(u\) is continuous and therefore there exists a continuous lifting \(\varphi\) of \(u\). It is proved that \(\varphi\in W^{s,p}(I,\mathbb R)\) and satisfies \[ | \varphi|_{W^{s,p}(I)}\leq C(s,p)\left[| u|_{{W^{s,p}(I)}}+| u|_{W^{s,p}(I)}^\frac{1}{s}\right], \] where \(| f|_{W^{s,p}(I)}\) denotes suitable seminorms in \(W^{s,p}(I,\mathbb R^{q})\). The second part of the paper deals with functions \(f\in BV(\Omega,\mathbb R^{q})\), i.e., \(f\in L^{1}_{loc}(\Omega,\mathbb R^{q})\) and \(\int_{\Omega}|\nabla f| <+\infty\), where \(\Omega\subset\mathbb R^d\). The BV seminorm is defined by \(| f|_{BV}=\int_{\Omega}|\nabla f|\). A new proof of the following result [cf.\ \textit{J.\,Davila} and \textit{R.\,Ignat}, C.\,R., Math., Acad.\ Sci.\ Paris 337, No.\,3, 159--164 (2003; Zbl 1046.46026)] is presented: if \(u\in BV(\Omega,S^1)\), there exists a lifting \(\varphi\in BV(\Omega,\mathbb R)\) of \(u\) satisfying \(|\varphi|_{BV}\leq 2| u|_{BV}\). The proof is based on the existence of a positive constant \(K\) and a suitable family of non-negative radial mollifiers \(\rho_{\varepsilon}\) such that \[ \lim_{\varepsilon\to 0}\int_{\Omega^2}\dfrac{| f(x)-f(y)|}{| x-y|}\rho_{\varepsilon}(| x-y|)\,dx\,dy=K| f|_{BV} \] for every \(f\in L^1_{loc}(\Omega,\mathbb R^q)\) [cf.\ \textit{J. Davila}, Calc. Var. Partial Differ. Equ. 15, No. 4, 519--527 (2002; Zbl 1047.46025)].