Extension criteria for homogeneous Sobolev spaces of functions of one variable (Q1998717)

Summary: For each \(p > 1\) and each positive integer \(m\), we give intrinsic characterizations of the restriction of the homogeneous Sobolev space \(L_p^m(\mathbb{R})\) to an arbitrary closed subset \(E\) of the real line. We show that the classical one-dimensional Whitney extension operator is ``universal'' for the scale of \(L_p^m(\mathbb{R})\) spaces in the following sense: \textit{For every \(p\in(1,\infty]\), it provides almost optimal \(L^m_p\)-extensions of functions defined on \(E\)}. The operator norm of this extension operator is bounded by a constant depending only on \(m\). This enables us to prove several constructive \(L^m_p\)-extension criteria expressed in terms of \(m\)-th order divided differences of functions.