On BV functions and essentially bounded divergence-measure fields in metric spaces (Q2135423)

In this paper one investigates integration by parts and Gauss-Green formulas for essentially bounded divergence-measure fields and functions of bounded variation in the context of locally compact metric measure spaces \((\mathbb{X},d,\mu)\) of type \(\mathrm{RDE}(K,\infty)\), i.e., the Ricci curvature is bounded from below by some constant \(K\). To deal with vector fields on a metric measure space it is necessary to refer to some differential structure of the ambient space in terms of which the usual objects of smooth geometry find an equivalent counterpart. The use of the corresponding differential machinery allows the authors to characterize functions of bounded variation (BV) on general metric measure spaces; more precisely, by considering the subclass of those essentially bounded vector fields whose divergence is bounded, namely \(\mathcal{D}^\infty(\mathbb{X})\), it is possible to characterize the total variation of a function in the usual way \[ \Vert D(u)\Vert(\Omega)= \sup\left\{\int_\Omega u\,\operatorname{div}(X)\mathrm{d}\mu;\ X\in\mathcal{D}^\infty(\mathbb{X}),\ \operatorname{supp}(X)\Subset\Omega,\ |X|\le 1\right\}. \] Then one can show that there is a one-to-one correspondence between the vector fields in the class \(\mathcal{D}^\infty(\mathbb{X})\) and the bounded Lipschitz derivations, a fact that leads to a construction of the BV space and a characterization of its elements. As the definition of BV functions involves an integration by parts, or a Gauss-Green formula this leads to the main goal of the paper. One focusses on the space of essentially bounded divergence-measure fields \(\mathcal{DM}^\infty(\mathbb{X})\), namely those bounded vector fields \(X\) whose distributional divergence is a finite Radon measure. The next result features the occurrence of the interior normal type trace \((X\cdot\nu_\Omega)^-_{\partial\Omega}\) of a vector \(X\in\mathcal{DM}^\infty(\mathbb{X})\): Let \(\mathbb{X}\) be locally compact, let \(X\in\mathcal{DM}^\infty(\mathbb{X})\), and let \(\Omega\subset\mathbb{X}\) be a regular domain. Then there exists a function \((X\cdot\nu_\Omega)^-_{\partial\Omega}\in L^\infty(\partial\Omega,\Vert D\1_\Omega\Vert)\) such that \[ \int_\Omega f\operatorname{ddiv}(X)+ \int_\Omega \mathrm{d}f(X)\mathrm{d}\mu= -\int_{\partial\Omega} f(X\cdot\nu_\Omega)^-_{\partial\Omega} \mathrm{d}\Vert D\1_\Omega\Vert, \] for every \(f\in\operatorname{Lip}_b(\mathbb{X})\) such that \(\operatorname{supp}(f\1_\Omega)\) is a bounded set, where \(\operatorname{Lip}_b(\mathbb{X})\) is the space of bounded Lipschitz functions on \(\mathbb{X}\). Then the general version of the Gauss-Green formula in locally compact \(\mathrm{RDC}(K,\infty)\) metric measure spaces is presented. Besides the interior and the exterior normal distributional traces of \(X\) \(\langle X,\nu_E\rangle^-_{\partial E}, \langle X,\nu_E\rangle^+_{\partial E}\in L^\infty(\mathbb{X},\Vert D\1_E\Vert)\) of \(X\in\mathcal{DM}^\infty(\mathbb{X})\) on the boundary \(\partial E\) of a set of finite perimeter \(E\subset\mathbb{X}\), one needs to consider some function \(\widetilde{\1}_E\) is the weak\(^*\) limit in \(L^\infty(\mathbb{X},\Vert\operatorname{div}(X)\Vert)\) of a subsequence of \((h_{t_j}\1_E)\), with \(h_t\) the heat flow. Similarly \(\widehat{\1}_E\) is an accumulation point of \((h_{t_j}\1_E)\) in \(L^\infty(\mathbb{X},\Vert D\1_E\Vert)\). Moreover, one considers the level sets \(\widetilde{E}^s:=\{\widetilde{\1}_E= s\}\) and the measure-theoretic boundary \(\widetilde{\partial^*E}:= \mathbb{X}\setminus(\widetilde{E}^0\cup\widetilde{E}^1)\). The proved result is the following one: Let \(X\in\mathcal{DM}^\infty(\mathbb{X})\) and let \(E\subset\mathbb{X}\) be a bounded set of finite perimeter. Then, we have \[ \operatorname{div}(X)(\widetilde{E}^1)=- \int_{\partial E}\frac{1}{\ell(1-\widehat{\1}_E)}\langle X,\nu_E\rangle^-_{\partial E}\mathrm{d}\Vert D\1_E\Vert, \] \[ \operatorname{div}(X)(\widetilde{E}^1\cup \widetilde{\partial'E})=- \int_{\partial E} \frac{1}{E\1_E} \langle X,\nu_E\rangle^+_{\partial E}\mathrm{d}\Vert D\1_E\Vert. \] From the above equalities one can derive the integration by parts formulas.