Regularization of Newtonian functions on metric spaces via weak boundedness of maximal operators (Q1782072)

The notion of upper gradients generalizes the fundamental theorem of calculus for functions to metric measure spaces. Based on this notion, Newtonian spaces \(N^{1,p}\) can be defined as the collections of \(L^p\) functions with \(L^p\) integrable upper gradients and it provides one way to develop the theory of first-order Sobolev spaces on metric measure spaces. As a counterpart of the classical theory on the density of smooth functions in the Sobolev classes, one can derive the density of Lipschitz functions in the Newtonian spaces in metric measure settings. This paper studies the density of Lipschitz functions in Newtonian spaces, with the \(L^p\) norm in the above definition replaced by quasi-Banach function lattices with absolutely continuous quasi-norm. The assumptions on the metric measure space are that the measure is doubling and the space supports a Poincaré inequality. In particular, the density of Lipschitz functions in every Newtonian space based on a rearrangement-invariant space with absolutely continuous norm is proved on a space supporting 1-Poincaré inequality. The proof of the density result uses, among other facts, the fact that a suitable maximal operator is locally weakly bounded. Furthermore, various sufficient conditions for such boundedness on quasi-Banach function lattices are established and applied.