\(L^\infty\)-truncation of closed differential forms (Q2146309)

The paper is devoted to \(L^\infty\)-truncation of closed differential forms. The author proves that for each closed differential form \(u \in L^1(\mathbb{R}^N; (\mathbb{R}^N ) *\wedge\dots\wedge(\mathbb{R}^N ))\), which is almost in \(L^\infty\) in the sense that \[ \int\limits_ {\{y\in\mathbb{R}^N : |u(y)|\geq L\}} |u(y)|dy < \varepsilon \] for some \(L > 0\) and a small \(\varepsilon > 0\), a closed differential form \(v\) can be found, such that the norm \(\|u-v\|_{L^1}\) is again small, and \(v\) is, in addition, in \(L^\infty\) with a bound on its \(L^\infty\) norm depending only on \(N\) and \(L\). In particular, the set \(\{v \neq u\}\) has measure at most \(C L^{-1}\varepsilon\). To prove this a special lemma is formulated which can be seen as a natural analogue of Lipschitz continuity on the set where the maximal function is small and the geometric Whitney extension theorem are established. The applications of the results to \(A\)-quasiconvex hulls and \(A\)-Young measures are also discussed.