On the approximate differentiability of inverse maps (Q2259138)

The authors prove a chain rule for a.e.\ approximately differentiable homeomorphisms acting in \(\mathbb R^n\). Given a domain \(\Omega\subset \mathbb R^n\), a function \(f:\Omega\to \mathbb R^n\) is said to be approximately differentiable at \(x_0\in \Omega\) if there exists a set \(A\subset \Omega\) of density \(1\) at \(x_0\), that is, \[ \lim_{r\to 0}\frac{|A\cap B(x_0,r)|}{|B(x_0,r)|}=1, \] such that \[ \lim_{y\to x_0, y\in A}\frac{|f(y)-f(x_0)- Df(x_0)(y-x_0)|}{|y-x_0|}=0. \] The authors address the question whether any homomorphism from \(\Omega\) into \( \Omega'\) approximately differentiable at \(x_0\in \Omega\) with non-zero Jacobian satisfies that \(f^{-1}\) is also approximately differentiable at \(y_0=f(x_0)\) with \(J_{f^{-1}}(y_0)=1/J_f(x_0)\). They present an example for \(n=2\) and \(\Omega=\Omega'=B(0,1)\) where this does not hold for \(x_0=0\). Denoting \(\mathcal R_f=\{x\in\Omega: f \text{ is approximately differentiable at } x, \text{ with } J_f(x)\neq 0\}\), their main result establishes that, if \(f:\Omega\to \Omega'\) is a homeomorphism which is approximately differentiable a.e., then there exists a Borel set \(B \subset \mathcal R_f\) with \(|B|=|\mathcal R_f|\) such that \(f(B)\subset \mathcal R_{f^{-1}}\) with \(|f(B)|=|\mathcal R_{f^{-1}}|\) such that \(Df^{-1}(f(x))Df(x)= \operatorname{Id}\) and \(J_{f^{-1}}(f(x))J_f(x)=1\) for all \(x\in B\). As a corollary, they obtain that approximately differentiable a.e.\ homeomorphisms satisfy \(|\mathcal R_{f^{-1}}|= |f(\mathcal R_f)|\). A~similar version of the chain rule for bi-Sobolev maps is known (see [\textit{S. Hencl} and \textit{P. Koskela}, Lectures on mappings of finite distortion. Cham: Springer (2014; Zbl 1293.30051)]). Also, some conditions on the homeomorphisms are provided to guarantee that density points are preserved.