Sobolev maps into the projective line with bounded total variation (Q986674)

The conformal \(p\)-energy is defined as \(\mathbf{D}_ p(u,B^{n})=\frac1{p^{p/2}}\int_{B^{n}}|D u|^p\) for \(W^{1,p}\)-mappings from the unit ball \(B^{n}\) into the unit \(p\)-sphere \({\mathbb S}^{p}\), that is, in the class \[ W^{1,p}(B^{n},\mathbb S^{p})=\{u\in W^{1,p}(B^{n},\mathbb R^{n+1}); \;|u(x)|=1\}. \] Recently, the author considered the \(p\)-energy of mappings that take values into the \(p\)-dimensional projective space \(\mathbb R\mathbb{P}^{p}\), obtained by identification of antipodal points in \(\mathbb S^{p}\), where \(\mathbb R\mathbb{P}^{p}\) is viewed as an embedded submanifold of some Euclidean space \(\mathbb R^N\) by \(g_ p:\mathbb S^{p}\to \mathbb R^N\). For \(\Omega=B^{n}\) or \(\mathbb S^{p}\), let \(\widetilde W^{1,p}(\Omega,\mathbb R\mathbb{P}^{p})\) be the subclass of maps \(u\in W^{1,p}(\Omega,\mathbb R\mathbb{P}^{p})\) for which there exists a Sobolev map \(v\in W^{1,p}(\Omega,\mathbb S^{p})\) such that \(g_ p\circ v=u\). In this paper, the author shows that for every Sobolev map \(u\in W^{1,1}(B^{n},\mathbb R\mathbb{P}^{1})\) there exists a bounded variation function \(v\in BV(B^{n},\mathbb S^{1})\) such that \(g_ 1\circ v=u\).