A strictly convex Sobolev function with null Hessian minors (Q2628982)

A smooth function on \(\mathbb{R}^n\) whose Hessian determinant vanishes everywhere is 1-developable; geometrically, its graph is a ruled surface, and has vanishing Gaussian curvature. These functions have been studied in connections with isometric immersions. In particular, under the \(W^{2,1}\) regularity assumption, an isometric immersion of co-dimension \(k\) satisfies the property that the Hessian of each of its coordinate functions has rank less than or equal to \(k\) almost everywhere. The purpose of the paper is to investigate on the limiting regularity that entails such a behaviour. The authors focuses on the construction of a function, in order to prove that, for low Sobolev regularity, the pointwise second derivative does not carry all the information needed to describe the true Hessian minors. The main result is the following: Theorem: Let \(k\in \{2,3,\dots, n\}\), \(1\leq p\leq k.\) Then there exists a strictly convex function \(f\in W^{2,p}((0,1)^n)\cap C^1([0,1]^n)\) such that rank \(\nabla^2 f<k\) almost everywhere in \((0,1)^n.\) In particular, \(F=\nabla f\) serves as an example of a \(W^{1,p}\) homeomorphism with rank \(\nabla F<k\) almost everywhere. In addition, the mapping \(F\) may be \(\alpha\)-Hölder continuous for each \(\alpha\in (0,1).\) In particular, if \(k=n,\) the following corollary holds: Corollary: If \(1\leq p <n,\) then there exists a strictly convex \(W^{2,p}\)-solution to the degenerate Monge-Ampère equation \[ \mathrm{det}(\nabla^2f)=0\quad \text{a.e.} \] on the \(n\)-dimensional unit cube.