Strong density for higher order Sobolev spaces into compact manifolds (Q2344497)

For a compact connected smooth \(n\)-dimensional manifold \(N^n\) embedded in \(\mathbb{R}^{\nu}\) for some \(\nu \geq 1\), \(k\) a positive integer, and \(1\leq p<\infty\), define \(W^{k,p}(Q^m;N^n)\) as the set \(\{u\in W^{k,p}(Q^m;\mathbb{R}^{\nu}):u\in N^n \text{a.e.}\}\), where \(Q^m \subset \mathbb{R}^m\) is the open unit cube. Consider \(H^{k,p}(Q^m;N^n)\) to be the class of smooth maps \({C}^{\infty}(\overline{Q}^m;N^n)\) with respect to the Sobolev metric \(d_{k,p}\). In this interesting paper, the authors prove the following result (Theorem 1): If \(kp<m\), then \(H^{k,p}(Q^m;N^n)=W^{k,p}(Q^m;N^n)\) if and only if \(\pi_{\lfloor kp \rfloor }=\{0\}\). In the case \(kp<m\) and \(\pi_{\lfloor kp \rfloor }\neq \{0\}\), then \(W^{k,p}(Q^m;N^n)\) is the completion of \(R_i(Q^m;N^n)\) with respect to the Sobolev metric \(d_{k,p}\) if and only if \(i=m-\lfloor kp \rfloor -1\), where \(R_i(Q^m;N^n)\) is the set of maps \(u :\overline{Q}^m \rightarrow N^n\) which are smooth on \(\overline{Q}^m \setminus T\), where \(T\) is a finite union of \(i\)-dimensional planes such that for every positive integer \(j\) and \(x\in \overline{Q}^m \setminus T\), \(|D^ju(x)|\leq \frac{C}{(\text{dist}(x,T))^j}\) (Theorem 2). Other authors results directly connected to this topic are contained in the papers [the authors, C. R., Math., Acad. Sci. Paris 346, No. 13--14, 735--740 (2008; Zbl 1156.46010); Confluentes Math. 5, No. 2, 3--22 (2013; Zbl 1314.58005)], and [the second author and the third author, Differ. Integral Equ. 22, No. 9--10, 881--900 (2009; Zbl 1240.46063)].