Diffeomorphic approximation of Sobolev homeomorphisms (Q715314)

This paper concerns the following question, which has been attributed by J. M. Ball to L. C. Evans: If \(\mathbb{X}\subset \mathbb{R}^{n}\) is open and \(h\) is an invertible member of the Sobolev class \(\mathcal{W}^{1,p}(\mathbb{X},\mathbb{R}^{n})\), can \(h\) be approximated in the Sobolev norm by piecewise affine invertible mappings? The authors recently gave an affirmative answer to this question when \(n=2=p\) [Int. Math. Res. Not. 2012, No. 14, 3256--3277 (2012; Zbl 1248.49052)]. The present paper extends this result to the case where \(n=2\) and \(1<p<\infty \). In fact, it establishes the stronger result that every homeomorphism \(h:\mathbb{X}\rightarrow \mathbb{Y}\) between planar open sets that belongs to \(\mathcal{W}^{1,p}(\mathbb{X},\mathbb{Y})\) can be approximated in the Sobolev norm by \(C^{\infty }\)-smooth diffeomorphisms. The case where \(p=1\) is left open. The authors also ask if their result remains valid when \(n=3\).