On the planar minimal BV extension problem (Q1650840)

Summary: Given a continuous, injective function \(\varphi\) defined on the boundary of a planar open set \(\Omega\), we consider the problem of minimizing the total variation among all the BV homeomorphisms on \(\Omega\) coinciding with \(\varphi\) on the boundary. We find the explicit value of this infimum in the model case when \(\Omega\) is a rectangle. We also present two important consequences of this result: first, whatever the domain \(\Omega\) is, the infimum above remains the same also if one restricts himself to consider only \(W^{1,1}\) homeomorphisms. Second, any BV homeomorphism can be approximated in the strict BV sense with piecewise affine homeomorphisms and with diffeomorphisms.