Rough geometric integration (Q6879271)

This paper introduces suitable classes \(\Omega^k_{\alpha,\beta}\) of generalized \(k\)-forms in a \(d\)-dimensional ambient space, for parameter \(\alpha\in (0,1]\) and \(\beta\in [0,1]\cup\{\infty\}\), which can be regarded as analogues of Hölder distributions. A number of their properties are established. In particular, the authors combine \textit{H. Whitney}'s geometric integration approach [Geometric integration theory. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press (1957; Zbl 0083.28204)], so that \(A\in \Omega^k_{\alpha,\beta}\) can be characterized by its evaluation on simplices \(\sigma\mapsto A(\sigma)\), together with Young's integration theory and more generally the sewing approach from rough paths.\N\NThis recovers and expands recent results obtained for \(d=2\) in [\textit{R. Züst}, Calc. Var. Partial Differ. Equ. 40, No. 1--2, 99--124 (2011; Zbl 1219.49036)] and [\textit{G. Alberti} et al., J. Funct. Anal. 286, No. 2, Article ID 110212, 37 p. (2024; Zbl 1537.49020)]. Besides its theoretical interest, this is motivated by applications to rough random distributions integrated over lower dimensional objects, like circle averages of the Gaussian free field and Wilson loop observables in \(2\)D Yang-Mills theory; recently, similar spaces of rough \(1\)-forms on \(\mathbb{R}^2\) were considered in [\textit{I. Chevyrev}, Commun. Math. Phys. 372, No. 3, 1027--1058 (2019; Zbl 1434.35134); \textit{A. Chandra} et al., Publ. Math., Inst. Hautes Étud. Sci. 136, 1--147 (2022; Zbl 1518.70029)].\N\NThe paper is structured as follows. The authors start Section 2 by defining an ambient space \(\Omega^k\), as the algebraic dual of the space of chains \(\mathcal{X}^k\). After introducing a suitable notion of size \(\mathbf{m}^k_\alpha(\sigma)\) of an oriented \(k\)-simplex \(\sigma\in \mathfrak{X}^k\), \(\Omega^k_{\alpha,\beta}\) is defined as the collection of \(A\in\Omega^k\) such that\N\begin{align*}\N|A(\sigma)|\lesssim \mathbf{m}^k_\alpha(\sigma), \qquad |\partial A(\omega)|\lesssim \mathbf{m}^k_\beta(\omega).\N\end{align*}\NAlong the way, a simplicial sewing lemma (Proposition 2.19) is established. It is then shown in Section 3 that \(\Omega^k_{\alpha,\beta}\) is contained in the continuous dual of \(\mathcal{B}^k_{\alpha,\beta}\), the completion of \(\mathcal{X}^k\) with respect to a suitable norm \(|\cdot|_{(\alpha,\beta)}\); for \(\alpha=1\), \(\beta\in (0,1)\), \(|\cdot|_{(1,\beta)}\) coincides with Whitney's flat norm. Theorem 4.1 provides a Young-type multiplication result, giving meaning to the product \(f\cdot A\) whenever \(f\in C^\gamma\), \(A\in \Omega^k_{\alpha,\beta}\) with \(\alpha+\gamma>1\). Section 5 shows that the notion of pullback on smooth forms can be extended to \(\Omega^k_{\alpha,\beta}\), for \(\alpha>1/2\), allowing to define intrinsically \(\Omega^k_{\alpha,\beta}(M)\) for oriented manifolds \(M\). Proposition 6.1 then shows that \(\Omega^k_{\alpha,\beta}\) embeds into spaces of Hölder distributions. Finally, Section 7 presents a Kolmogorov criterion, which is applied to a class of distributional Gaussian fields.