Smooth approximation for intrinsic Lipschitz functions in the Heisenberg group (Q2445465): Difference between revisions

The authors study some properties of Lipschitz continuous functions defined, mainly, on the Heisenberg group. They characterize intrinsic Lipschitz functions as maps which can be approximated by a sequence of smooth maps, with pointwise convergent intrinsic gradients. The authors provide an estimate of the Lipschitz constant of an intrinsic Lipschitz function in terms of the \(L^\infty\)-norm of its intrinsic gradient. A function \(\phi: \omega \to \mathbb{R}\), where \(\omega \subset W=\mathbb{R}^{2n}\), is an (intrinsic) Lipschitz continuous function in \(\omega\) if there is a constant \(L>0\) such that \(|\phi(x)-\phi(y)|\leq L d_\phi(x,y)\) where \(d_\phi(x,y)\) is the graph distance between \(x,y\in \omega\), defined appropriately. After recalling the main properties of Lipschitz functions proved in [\textit{B. Franchi} et al., J. Geom. Anal. 21, No. 4, 1044--1084 (2011; Zbl 1234.22002)], the authors obtain some results on the equivalence of the graph distance \(d_\phi\) to the Carnot Carathéodory distance, an area formula for the spherical Hausdorff \((2n+1)\)-measure of the intrinsic graph of a Lipschitz function in terms of its \(\nabla^\phi\)-gradient. The main result of the paper is an approximation theorem for Lipschitz functions (Theorem 1.7).