Piecewise affine approximations for functions of bounded variation (Q2634611)

The authors consider the question of whether a BV function can be approximated well by piecewise affine functions. As it is shown in Proposition 4, any good approximation by piecewise-constant BV functions instead of piecewise affine functions cannot be realized. The approximation by piecewise affine functions given in Theorem 1 is area-strictly close to the original function, and the \(L^{1}\)-difference between the traces of the original and approximating functions on a substantial part of the mesh can be made arbitrarily small. The mesh is adapted to the singularities of the BV function to be approximated. The proof of the theorem is based on a blow-up argument together with explicit constructions of the mesh. Finally, in Theorem 3 a stronger approximation result for \(W^{1,1}\)-Sobolev functions is established: an optimal \(W^{1,1}\)-error estimation for approximation by piecewise affine functions on uniform regular triangulations is obtained.