Precise estimate of the 2-capacity of a condenser (Q915912)

Let \(E^+\) and \(E^-\) be non-empty closed separated sets in the Euclidean space \({\mathbb{R}}^ p\), \(p\geq 3\), one of them being bounded. Then the pair \(E=(E^+,E^-)\) is called a capacitor. Let cap E\(=\inf \{\int_{{\mathbb{R}}^ p}| \text{grad} f(x)|^ 2 dx\}\), where infimum is taken over all f which are continuous in \({\bar {\mathbb{R}}}^ p\), absolutely continuous on lines in \({\mathbb{R}}^ p\) and such that f(x)\(\equiv 1\), \(x\in E^+\), and f(x)\(\equiv 0\), \(x\in E^-.\) For a certain class of capacitors the author gives the lower bounds for cap E via Newtonian capacities of certain sets associated with E. She also characterizes the capacitors which admit the equality sign in these estimates.