Superharmonic approximation on the closed sets (Q1901429)

Let \(\Omega\) be a non-compact Riemannian manifold and \(E\) be a closed subset of \(\Omega\). If \(A\subseteq \Omega\), then let \(S^+ (A)\) (respectively, \(S_c (A)\)) denote the convex cone of restrictions to \(A\) of functions which are positive (respectively, continuous) and superharmonic on some neighbourhood of \(A\). Also, let \(\overline {S}_c (A)\) denote the closure of \(S_c (A)\) in \(C(A)\) in the topology of uniform convergence. Theorem 2 of this paper asserts that the following conditions on \(u: E\to \mathbb{R}\) are equivalent: (a) for each \(x\in E\) there exists a neighbourhood \(V\) of \(x\) such that \(u|_{E\cap V}\in \overline {S}_c (E\cap V)\); (b) for each \(s\in S^+ (E)\) and each \(\varepsilon >0\) there exists \(v\in S_c (E)\) for which \(|u- v|\leq s\) on \(E\); (c) \(u\in \overline {S}_c (E)\) and (d) \(u\in C(E)\) and \(u\) is finely superharmonic on the fine interior of \(E\). An analogue of this result for approximation by harmonic functions is also given. Among several applications the authors generalize a result of the reviewer [Ill. J. Math. 39, 143-157 (1995; Zbl 0810.31002)]\ concerning tangential harmonic approximation (that is, approximation with an error bound that decays arbitrarily quickly ``at infinity''.