Metric currents and Alberti representations (Q329681)

The paper relates metric currents to Alberti representations and Weaver derivations. Currents as introduced by \textit{H. Federer} and \textit{W. H. Fleming} [Ann. Math. (2) 72, 458--520 (1960; Zbl 0187.31301)] use the differential structure of \(\mathbb{R}^N\). A theory of metric currents has been developed by \textit{L. Ambrosio} and \textit{B. Kirchheim} [Acta Math. 185, No. 1, 1--80 (2000; Zbl 0984.49025)] which circumvents the lack of a differentiable structure in general metric spaces. Alberti representations were introduced in [\textit{G. Alberti}, Proc. R. Soc. Edinb., Sect. A 123, No. 2, 239--274 (1993; Zbl 0791.26008)] to prove the rank-one property for BV functions. In [\textit{G. Alberti} et al., in: Proceedings of the 4th European congress of mathematics (ECM), Stockholm, Sweden, June 27--July 2, 2004. Zürich: European Mathematical Society (EMS). 3--22 (2005; Zbl 1088.28002); in: Proceedings of the international congress of mathematicians (ICM 2010), Hyderabad, India, August 19--27, 2010. Vol. III: Invited lectures. Hackensack, NJ: World Scientific; New Delhi: Hindustan Book Agency. 1379--1394 (2011; Zbl 1251.26010)], they were applied to study the differentiablility properties of Lipschitz functions \(f : \mathbb{R}^N \to \mathbb{R}\). In [\textit{D. Bate}, J. Am. Math. Soc. 28, No. 2, 421--482 (2015; Zbl 1307.30097)], they have been used to obtain a description of measures in differentiability spaces. The authors show the following main results: Theorem 1.3. Let \(X\) be a complete separable metric space, \(\mathbf{M}_k(X)\) the Banach space of \(k\)-dimensional metric currents in \(X\), and let \(T \in\mathbf M_k(X) \setminus \{0\}\) for \(k > 0\). Then there are disjoint Borel sets \(\{V_j\}_j\) and \(1\)-Lipschitz functions \(\pi^j : X \to \mathbb{R}^k\) such that: (1) \(\|T\|(X \setminus \bigcup_j V_j) = 0\). (2) For all \(\epsilon > 0\) and for any \(k\)-dimensional cone field \(C\), the measure \(\|T\|\) admits a \((1,1+\epsilon)\)-bilipschitz Alberti representation \({A}\) with \({A} V_j\) in the \(\pi^j\)-direction of \({C}\). In particular, the module \(\mathcal{X}(\|T\|)\) contains \(k\) independent derivations. Theorem 1.4. Let \(T \in\mathbf M_k(X)\) and assume that \({X}(\|T\|)\) is finitely generated with \(N\) generators. Then there is \(\omega_T \in \mathcal{X}^k(\|T\|)\) such that: \[ T(f, \pi_1, \ldots, \pi_k) =\int_X f \langle \omega_T, d\pi_1 \wedge \cdots \wedge d \pi_k\rangle\, d \|T\|. \] Theorem 1.6. If \(T \in\mathbf M_1(Z)\) where \(Z\) is a Banach space and if the module \(\mathcal{X}(\|T\|)\) is finitely generated, then there is a sequence of normal currents \(\{N_n\} \subset\mathbf N_1(Z)\) such that: \[ \lim_{n \to \infty} \|T - N_n \|_{\mathbf M_1(Z)} = 0. \]