A nonautonomous chain rule in \(W ^{1,p }\) and \(BV\) (Q1942249)

Let \(F: {\mathbb R}^{n}\times {\mathbb R}^{h}\rightarrow {\mathbb R}\) be separately Sobolev, or \(BV\), with respect to the first variable and \(C^{1}\) with respect to the second variable. Under some additional structural assumptions the authors prove that for any \(u \in BV_{\text{loc}} \left( {\mathbb R}^{n}, {\mathbb R}^{h}\right)\) the composite function \(v \left( x \right) := F\left( x,u \left( x \right) \right)\) belongs to \(BV_{\text{loc}} \left( {\mathbb R}^{n} \right)\) and they show the existence of a countably \({\mathcal H}^{n-1}\)-rectifiable set \({\mathcal N}_{F}\), independent of \(u\) and containing the jump set of \(F \left( \cdot ,z\right)\) for every \(z \in {\mathbb R}^{h}\), such that the jump set of \(\nu\) is contained in \({\mathcal N}_{F}\cup J_{u}\). In the main result they prove the following identities in the sense of measures: 1. (diffuse part) \(\left| Dv\right| \ll \sigma +\left| Du\right| \), and for any Radon measure \(\mu \) such that \(\sigma +\left| Du\right| \ll \mu\), it holds \[ {{d\widetilde{D}v}\over {d\mu }}= { {d\widetilde{D}_{x}F\left( \cdot , \widetilde{u}\left( x\right) \right) } \over {d\mu } }+\nabla _{z}\widetilde{F}\left( x,\widetilde{u}\left( x\right) \right) {{d\widetilde{D}u} \over {d\mu }}; \] 2. (jump part) \(D^{j}v=F^{+}\left( x,u^{+}\left( x\right) \right) -F^{-}\left( x,u^{-}\left( x\right) \right) \nu _{{\mathcal N}_{F}\cup J_{u}} {\mathcal H}^{n-1} \;\mathsf{L} \;\left( {\mathcal N}_{F}\cup J_{u}\right) \). This generalizes the chain rule formula known for the composition \(x\rightarrow F\left( u\left( x\right) \right)\).