The chain rule and a compactness theorem for \(BV\) functions in the Heisenberg group \(\mathbf H^{n}\) (Q1414189)

Let \({\mathbb H}^n\) be the Heisenberg group and \(\Omega\) a bounded open subset of \({\mathbb H}^n\). Let \(BV_H(\Omega)\) be the set of all \(L^1\) functions on \(\Omega\) with bounded \(H\)-variation and \(D_Hu=D_H^au+D_H^ju+D_H^cu={\widetilde D}_H^u+D_h^ju\) the decomposition of the horizontal derivative \(D_Hu\) of \(u\in BV_H(\Omega)\), where \(D_H^au, D_H^ju, D_H^cu, {\widetilde D}_H^u\) denote the absolute continuous part, the jump part, the Cantor part, and the diffuse part of \(D_Hu\). Let \(SBV_H(\Omega)\) be the subset consisting of \(u\in BV_H(\Omega)\) with \(D_Hu^c=0\). In this paper Y. Q. Song and X. P. Yang investigate the behavior of \(u\in BV_H(\Omega)\) composed with a Lipschitz function \(f\) on \({\mathbb R}\). They prove that \(v=f\circ u\in BV_H(\Omega)\) and give a chain rule for \(D_Hv\): \[ {\widetilde D}_Hv=f'({\widetilde u})D_H^au+f'({\widetilde u})D_H^cu =f'({\widetilde u}){\widetilde D}_Hu \] \[ D_H^jv=\frac{2\omega_{2n-1}}{\omega_{2n+1}}(f(u^+)-f(u^-)) v_uS_d^{Q-1}\lfloor J_u, \] where \({\widetilde u}\) is the Lebesgue representative of \(u\) as an \(L^1\) function, \(u^+, u^-, v_u\) are respectively the approximate upper limit, lower limit, jump direction of \(u\) at a jump point, \(J_u\) the jump set, \(\omega_k\) the \((k-1)\)-dimensional Hausdorff measure of a unit sphere in \({\mathbb R}^k\) and \(S_d^{Q-1}\), \(Q=2n+2\), the \((Q-1)\) spherical Hausdorff measure in \({\mathbb H}^n\) with respect to the Carnot-Carathéodory metric \(d\). As an application of this chain rule, they obtain a compactness theorem for \(SBV_H(\Omega)\).