Absolutely continuous functions of several variables (Q1283113)

The aim of the paper is to introduce a function space which seems to be the right extension to more than one independent variable of the classical space of absolutely continuous functions introduced by Vitali. A mapping \(\varphi:\Omega\subset{\mathbb R}^n\to {\mathbb R}^d\) is said to be \(n\)-absolutely continuous (in symbols, \(\varphi\in AC_n(\Omega)\)) if for any \(\varepsilon>0\) there exists \(\delta>0\) such that \[ \sum_i {\mathcal L}^n(B_i)<\delta \Longrightarrow \sum_i\bigl(\text{osc}_{B_i} \varphi\bigr)^n<\varepsilon \] whenever \(B_i\subset\Omega\) are pairwise disjoint. The author proves that any mapping in this class belongs to the Sobolev space \(W^{1,n}\) and that any mapping in \(W^{1,p}\) for some \(p>n\) is \(n\)-absolutely continuous. Moreover, many results previously known for \(W^{1,p}\) functions for some \(p>n\), or for functions whose weak gradient is in the Lorentz space \(L^{n,1}\) (differentiability a.e., Lusin property, degree, area and coarea formulas), can be extended to \(AC_n\) functions and proved in a unified way. It is also proved that spherically pseudomonotone functions are \(n\)-absolutely continuous.