Approximation by polynomials and smooth functions in Sobolev spaces with respect to measures (Q1867269)

Let us consider \(1\leq p<\infty\) and \(\mu=(\mu_0,:,\mu_k)\) a vectorial Borel measure in \(\mathbb R\) with \(\Delta:=\cup_{j=0}^k\text{ supp}\mu_j\). The Sobolev norm of a function \(f\) of class \(C^k(\mathbb R)\) in \(W^{k,p}(\Delta,\mu)\) is defined by \[ \|f\|^p_{ W^{k,p}(\Delta,\mu)}:=\sum\limits_{j=0}^k\int|f^{(j)}|^p d\mu_j . \] The density of polynomials is straightforward to prove in Sobolev spaces \(W^{k,p}((a,b))\), but there exist only partial results in weighted Sobolev spaces; in the paper the author improves some of these theorems. The situation is more complicated in infinite intervals, even for weighted \(L^p\) spaces; besides, in the present paper the author has proved some other results for weighted Sobolev spaces in infinite intervals. First, the author proves four theorems which give sufficient conditions for \(C^\infty_c(\mathbb R)\) to be dense in \(W^{k,p}(\Delta,\mu)\), if \(\Delta\) is a compact interval. Observe that under this hypothesis on \(\Delta\), \(C^\infty_c(\mathbb R)\) is dense if and only if \(C^\infty(\mathbb R)\) or \(P\) is dense. For example, Theorem 3.1. Let us consider \(1\leq p<\infty\) and \(\mu=(\mu_0,\mu_1)\) a finite p-admissible vectorial measure with \(\Delta=[a,b]\) and \(d\mu_1/dx\in B_p((a,b))\). Then \(C^\infty_c(\mathbb R)\) is dense in \(W^{k,p}([a,b],\mu)\). Next, the author gives a sufficient condition for \(P\) to be dense in \(W^{k,p}(\Delta,\mu)\) without hypothesis on the support \(\Delta\). As an application of this theorem he obtains many results for particular weights. He makes the computations for the following cases: Laguerre, Freud and weights of fast decreasing degree. He also obtains results which allow to decide in many cases when two norms are comparable.