A continuity theorem for operators from \(W^{1,q}(\Omega)\) into \(L^ r(\Omega)\) (Q799903)

The present paper deals with the problem of finding conditions under which a function \(f:{\mathbb{R}}\times {\mathbb{R}}^ n\to {\mathbb{R}}\) provides, via the operator \[ (T_ fu)(x)=f(u'x),Du(x)), \] a continuous mapping from a Sobolev space \(W^{1,q}(\Omega)\) into a space \(L^ r(\Omega)\). If f is continuous (and satisfies appropriate growth conditions depending on q,r), then the continuity of \(T_ f\) follows immediately from the Lebesgue dominated convergence theorem: if \(f(s,z)=<a(s),z>\) with a(s) bounded measurable vector function, and \(q=r\), then the continuity of \(T_ f\) has been proved by \textit{M. Marcus} and \textit{V. J. Mizel} [J. Funct. Anal. 33, 217-229 (1979; Zbl 0418.46024)]. In this paper we prove the continuity of \(T_ f\) under the following assumptions: i) for every \(z\in {\mathbb{R}}^ n\) the function \(f(\cdot,z)\) is measurable; ii) for a.a. \(s\in {\mathbb{R}}\) the function f(s,\(\cdot)\) is continuous; iii) for every \(s\in {\mathbb{R}}\) the function f is continuous at (s,0); iv) for every \(s\in {\mathbb{R}}\), \(z\in {\mathbb{R}}^ n\) we have \(| f(s,z)|\leq c(1+| s|^{q/r}+| z|^{q/r}).\)