Functions of bounded fractional variation and fractal currents (Q2317438)

In this paper the author extends the notion of bounded variation to the fractional case. Namely, given an exponent \(\alpha\in [0,1],\) the \(\alpha\)-fractional space \(BV_c^\alpha(\mathbb{R}^n)\) consists of all functions \(u\in L^1_c(\mathbb{R}^n)\) for which there exists \(C>0\) such that \[ \Big| \int_{R^n} u(x) \det D(f,g_1,\ldots,g_{n-1}) d x\Big| \le C\mathrm{Lip}^\alpha(f)\mathrm{Lip}(g_1)\ldots\mathrm{Lip}(g_{n-1}) \tag{A} \] for all \(f\in \mathrm{Lip}_c(\mathbb{R}^n)\cap \mathrm{Lip}^\alpha(\mathbb{R}^n)\) and \(g_1,\ldots,g_{n-1}\in \mathrm{Lip}(\mathbb{R}^n),\) where \(\mathrm{Lip}^\alpha(\mathbb{R}^n)\) is the space of all Hölder continuous functions with Hölder exponent \(\alpha.\) The \(\alpha\)-fractional variation \(V^\alpha(u)\) of \(u\in BV_c^\alpha(\mathbb{R}^n)\) is defined as the supremum of the integral in (A) w.r.t. all possible \(f,g_1,\ldots,g_{n-1}\) with \(\mathrm{Lip}^\alpha(f)\le 1\) and \(\mathrm{Lip}(g_1),\ldots,\mathrm{Lip}(g_{n-1})\le1.\) Note that the definition of \(BV_c^\alpha\) can easily be localized to any bounded open set \(U\subset\mathbb{R}^n.\) The space \(BV_c^\alpha(\mathbb{R}^n)\) is sufficiently large and includes, for instance, Hölder functions and sets with fractal boundary. Representing the integral in (A) as \[ \int_{\mathbb{R}^n} u(x) \det D(f,g_1,\ldots,g_{n-1}) d x = \partial [[u]] (f d g_1\wedge\ldots\wedge d g_{n-1}), \tag{B} \] where \([[u]]\) is the current with density \(u,\) induced by integrating differential forms, one sees that there is a connection between the definition of \(BV_c^\alpha(\mathbb{R}^n)\) and (Ambrosio-Kirchheim-type) currents of certain dimension which act continuously on differential forms equipped with some Hölder norm. The primary aim of this work is to characterize this connection which is related to the continuous extension of the \(n\)-linear form in (B) from Lipschitz space to some Hölder spaces. The author also shows that the space \(BV_c^\alpha(\mathbb{R}^n)\) owes similar properties as the usual BV-functions, some of which are: \(L^1\)-compactness, \(L^1\)-lower-semicontinuity of the \(\alpha\)-variation, higher integrability (i.e., continuous and compact embeddings to some \(L_c^p(\mathbb{R}^n)\)-spaces), isoperimetric inequalities, Lusin-type properties, change of variables (push-forwards) in currents, and also good approximation results with BV-functions. As an application of the described theory for the space of functions with bounded fractional variations, author establishes the higher integrability results for the Brouwer degree function for certain Hölder functions, and thus, generalizing previous results of some earlier works on the higher integrability of Brouwer degree.