Jacobians of Sobolev homeomorphisms (Q982223)

Let \(\Omega\) be a domain in \(\mathbb R^n\) and \(f\) a homeomorphism of the Sobolev class \(W_{\text{loc}}^{1,s}(\Omega,\mathbb R^n\)), \(s\geq1\), of all locally \(s\)-integrable mappings of \(\Omega\) into \({\mathbb R}^n\) whose coordinate functions have locally \(s\)-integrable distributional derivatives. It is shown that for \(s=1\) and \(n=2\) or 3, the Jacobian \(J_f\) satisfies either \(J_f\geq0\) a.e. or \(J_f\leq0\) a.e. For \(n>3\) the same conclusion is proved under the stronger assumption that \(f\) is in \(W_{\text{loc}}^{1,s}(\Omega,{\mathbb R}^n\)) for some \(s>\lfloor n/2\rfloor\).