The Whitney extension theorem in high dimensions (Q529997)

Let \(E\subset \mathbb{R}^n\) be a compact set. The classical \textit{H. Whitney} extension theorem [Trans. Am. Math. Soc. 36, 63--89 (1934; Zbl 0008.24902)] asserts that there exists a linear operator \(C^m(E) \to C^m(\mathbb{R}^n)\) such that if \(f\in C^m(E)\) is mapped to \(F\in C^m(\mathbb{R}^n),\) then \(F|_E=f\) and \(F\) has derivatives of all orders in the complement \(E^c.\) Moreover, the norm of the extension operator grows exponentially with the dimension \(n.\) In the very interesting article under review, the author generalizes the Whitney theorem by constructing an extension operator \(\mathcal{E}_m: C^m(E) \to C^m(\mathbb{R}^n)\) the norm of which has polynomial growth \(C n^{5m/2}\) with \(C\) depending only on \(m.\) The exponential growth of the dimension in the original proof of Whitney is due to the behaviour of the \textit{cutoff functions} of \textit{Whitney cubes} near their boundaries. The author takes care here of this by averaging over translations of the cubes and this eliminates the problematic behaviour, leading this way to the polynomial growth.