BV functions over rectifiable currents (Q678163)

In the paper, starting from the question of writing a nonparametric variational problem as a minimum problem over graphs of functions, the authors introduce BV functions over rectifiable currents. According to the general point of view of relaxation, there are two ways of introducing a new object in a variational framework: (i) define the object in a weak form, in this case by means of convenient integration by parts formulae on submanifolds; (ii) define the object as a suitable limit of classical regular already well-known objects, in this case smooth functions over smooth manifolds. In several situations the ways (i) and (ii) above produce the same objects, as for instance it happens for usual Sobolev spaces or BV spaces on a Lipschitz open subset of \(\mathbb{R}^n\). Section 1 is devoted to recall some tools for differential geometry, like the tangential derivative over a manifold and the corresponding integration by parts formula. In Section 2 the notion of BV function over a rectifiable current is introduced, and a coarea formula is proved. Section 3 deals with the approximate differentiability of BV functions. In the rest of the paper, the problem of characterizing the space of currents which are suitable limits of graphs is considered.