Density of bounded maps in Sobolev spaces into complete manifolds (Q1681840)

Let \(Q^m=(-1,1)^m\subset {\mathbb R}^m\) be the open unit cube in \(m\)-dimensional Euclidean space \({\mathbb R}^m\). By a standard truncation argument it follows that the set of bounded maps from \(Q^m\) into \(n\)-dimensional Euclidean space \({\mathbb R}^n\) is dense in the set of Sobolev maps \(W^{1,p}(Q^m,{\mathbb R}^n)\). In the setting of Sobolev maps with a Riemannian manifold \(N^n\) as target, a more advanced approach is needed to handle the corresponding density problem. The authors investigate whether the set of bounded Sobolev maps \((W^{1,p}\cap L^{\infty})(Q^m, N^n)\) on the cube \(Q^m\) is strongly dense in the Sobolev space \(W^{1,p}(Q^m, N^n)\) for \(1\leq p\leq m\). The density always holds when \(p\) is not an integer. When \(p\) is an integer, the density can fail. The authors prove that density is equivalent to a technical property which is ensured, for example, if \(N^n\) carries a uniform Lipschitz geometry.