Fine properties of the curvature of arbitrary closed sets (Q778047)

The author studies properties of the curvature of arbitrary closed subsets of the Euclidean space. His starting point is essentially the work of \textit{D. Hug} et al. [Math. Z. 246, No. 1--2, 237--272 (2004; Zbl 1059.53061)]. He first studies the relation between the principal curvatures of an arbitrary set defined by Hug, Last and Weil, and an extension of the principal curvatures for sets of positive reach obtained by using the nearest point projection. For that, a reach-type function and a second fundamental form for an arbitrary closed set \(A\) are defined. The introduced second fundamental form has the property that the finite principal curvatures of \(A\) correspond to the eigenvalues of it. Then, an integral representation for the support measures of a closed set \(A\) is given by using a natural stratification of \(A\). In the last section, the author studies the relation of the curvature of \(A\) with the notion of approximate curvature for second-order rectifiable sets (those having approximate differential of order 2 at almost every point). Here it is essentially proved that the ``absolute continuous part'' of the second fundamental form introduced in the paper is given by the approximate differential of order 2, previously introduced by the author. The concepts are carefully introduced and a short proof of some of the used consequences of known facts is given in an appendix.