Sobolev embeddings, rearrangement-invariant spaces and Frostman measures (Q2285253)

Let $\Omega$ be an open set in $\mathbb R^n$, $n\ge 2$, $|\Omega |<\infty$, and let $X(\Omega)$ be a rearrangement-invariant space. If $m \in \mathbb N$, then the symbol $W^mX(\Omega)$ stands for the Sobolev space of functions which are $m$-times weakly differentiable in $\Omega$, and $|\nabla^ku| \in X(\Omega)$ for $k=0,\dots,m$. This space is equipped with the norm \[ \|u\|_{W^mX(\Omega)}=\sum_{k=0}^m \|\nabla^ku\|_{X(\Omega)}. \] Let $W^m_0X(\Omega)$ denote the subspace of $W^mX(\Omega)$ of those functions whose continuation to $\mathbb R^n$ by 0 outside $\Omega$ is an $m$-times weakly differentiable function in $\mathbb R^n$. Let $Y(\Omega, \mu)$ be a rearrangement-invariant space, where $\mu$ is a finite Borel measure on $\Omega$ satisfying the condition \[ \sup _{x\in \mathbb R^n, r>0} \frac{\mu(B_r(x)\cap \Omega)}{r^d}<\infty \] for some $d\in (0,n]$, and $B_r(x)$ denotes the ball centered at $x$, with radius $r$. Note that this class of measures is called $d$-Frostman measures or $d$-upper Ahlfors regular measures. {I.} First assume that $0<n-m\le d \le n$ (the case of fast decaying measures). The authors study the Sobolev inequality of the form \[ \|u\|_{Y(\Omega, \mu)}\le C \|\nabla^m u\|_{X(\Omega)} \quad \text{for all } \ u\in W^m_0X(\Omega) \] ($C$ is a positive constant). Using convenient classical endpoint sharp embeddings and $K$-functional techniques from interpolation theory, they reduce the problem to the one-dimensional case, namely to the Hardy-type inequality \[ \Big\|\int^1_{t^\frac{n}{d}} f(s) s^{-1+\frac{m}{n}}\,ds\Big\|_{Y(0,1)} \le c \|f\|_{X(0,1)} \] for all nonnegative and non-increasing functions $f\in X(0,1)$ ($c$ is a positive constant, $Y(0,1)$ and $X(0,1)$ are representation spaces of $Y(\Omega, \mu)$ and $X(\Omega)$). The same characterisation is obtained for the Sobolev inequality of the form \[ \|u\|_{Y(\Omega, \mu)}\le C \|u\|_{W^mX(\Omega)} \quad \text{for all } \ u\in W^mX(\Omega) \] provided that $\Omega$ is bounded and has the cone property, and there exist $x_0 \in \Omega$ and $R>0$ such that \[ \inf _{r\in (0,R]}\frac{\mu(B_r(x_0)\cap \Omega)}{r^d}>0. \] Finally, if $\Omega$ is a bounded Lipschitz domain and $\mu$ is a finite Borel measure on $\overline{\Omega}$ such that \[ \sup _{x\in \mathbb R^n, r>0} \frac{\mu(B_r(x)\cap \overline{\Omega})}{r^d}<\infty\quad \text{and}\quad \inf _{r\in (0,R]}\frac{\mu(B_r(x_0)\cap \overline{\Omega})}{r^d}>0 \] for some $x_0 \in \overline{\Omega}$ and $R>0,$ then the same characterisation is obtained for the Sobolev inequality of the form \[ \|u\|_{Y(\overline{\Omega}, \mu)}\le C \|u\|_{W^mX(\Omega)} \quad \text{for all } \ u\in W^mX(\Omega). \] These are some of the main results of the paper and they are used to describe optimal rearrangement-invariant target spaces for the Sobolev embeddings in question. {II.} Assume now that $0<d<n-m$ (the case of slowly decaying measures). In this case, it is shown that the problem is more involved and that the Hardy-type inequality mentioned above is not sufficient for the embedding of $W^mX(\Omega)$ into $Y(\Omega,\mu)$ or $Y(\overline{\Omega},\mu)$. In this situation, the authors propose two versions of reduction principles which can be used to deal with different classes of rearrangement-invariant norms. In the last section of the paper, the authors apply results established in the previous sections to prove embeddings for standard Sobolev space $W^{m,p}_0(\Omega)$, or $W^{m,p}(\Omega)$, into an optimal rearrangement-invariant target space with respect to a $d$-Frostman measure.