Characterizing W^2,p submanifolds by p-integrability of global curvatures

Length, area, volume, other geometric measure theory (28A75) Sobolev spaces and other spaces of ``smooth functions, embedding theorems, trace theorems (46E35) Higher-dimensional and -codimensional surfaces in Euclidean and related (n)-spaces (53A07)

Abstract: We give sufficient and necessary geometric conditions, guaranteeing that an immersed compact closed manifold

S i g m a^{m} s u b s e t R^{n}

of class

C^{1}

and of arbitrary dimension and codimension (or, more generally, an Ahlfors-regular compact set

S i g m a

satisfying a mild general condition relating the size of holes in

S i g m a

to the flatness of

S i g m a

measured in terms of beta numbers) is in fact an embedded manifold of class

C^{1, a u} c a p W^{2, p}

, where

p > m

and

a u = 1 - m / p

. The results are based on a careful analysis of Morrey estimates for integral curvature--like energies, with integrands expressed geometrically, in terms of functions that are designed to measure either (a) the shape of simplices with vertices on

S i g m a

or (b) the size of spheres tangent to

S i g m a

at one point and passing through another point of

S i g m a

. Appropriately defined emph{maximal functions} of such integrands turn out to be of class

L^{p} (S i g m a)

for

p > m

if and only if the local graph representations of

S i g m a

have second order derivatives in

L^{p}

and

S i g m a

is embedded. There are two ingredients behind this result. One of them is an equivalent definition of Sobolev spaces, widely used nowadays in analysis on metric spaces. The second one is a careful analysis of local Reifenberg flatness (and of the decay of functions measuring that flatness) for sets with finite curvature energies. In addition, for the geometric curvature energy involving tangent spheres we provide a nontrivial lower bound that is attained if and only if the admissible set

S i g m a

is a round sphere.

Review text

The authors show sufficient and necessary (geometric) conditions for a \(C^1\) compact \(m\)-manifold immersed in a Euclidean space \(\Sigma\subset\mathbb{R}^n\), to be an embedded \(C^{1,\tau}\cap W^{2,p}\)-submanifold, where \(p>m\) and \(\tau=1-m/p\). In fact, these conditions apply to a more general family of topological spaces, called \(m\)-fine compact sets. Thus, specialists in geometric measure theory and potential theory should be interested in this paper. The whole work relies on a background of deep results. The first section presents definitions and states sufficient and necessary conditions. First of all, an \(m\)-fine compact set is a set satisfying two conditions: (i) Ahlfors regularity, i.e., the \(m\)-Hausdorff measure of \(\Sigma\) in balls of small radius \(r\) is bounded from below by \(C r^m\), where \(C\) is a constant which only depends on \(\Sigma\); (ii) ``hole-control in small scales, i.e., that the bilateral beta numbers \(\theta_\Sigma(x,r)\) are upper controlled by the beta numbers \(\beta_\Sigma(x,r)\) -- these numbers give a notion of what is going on geometrically in small scales \(r>0\) around \(x\in\Sigma\). Let \(\operatorname{conv}(x_0,\dotsc,x_m)\) be the convex hull of \(x_0,\dotsc,x_m\in\mathbb{R}^n\), i.e., the affine simplex with these vertices. For an \(m\)-fine set \(\Sigma\), the global Menger curvature at a point \(x_0\in\Sigma\) is defined as \[ \mathcal{K}_G(x_0)=\sup_{x_1,\dotsc,x_m+1\in\Sigma}\frac{\mathcal{H}^{m+1}(\operatorname{conv}(x_0,x_1,\dotsc,x_{m+1}))}{\max |x_i-x_j|}, \] where \(\mathcal{H}^{m+1}\) is the \((m+1)\)-Hausdorff measure in \(\mathbb{R}^n\). Let \(R_{\mathrm{tp}}:\Sigma\times\Sigma\times G(n,m)\to[0,\infty]\) be the tangent-point radius defined as \[ R_{\mathrm{tp}}(x,y;H)=\frac{|x-y|}{2\operatorname{dist}(y,x + H)}. \] Assuming that \(H:\Sigma\to G(n,m)\) is given, the global tangent-point curvature is defined as \[ \mathcal{K}_{\mathrm{tp}}(x,H)=\sup_{y\in\Sigma}\frac{1}{R_{\mathrm{tp}}(x,y;H(x))}. \] In the case of a \(C^1\)-manifold the obvious choice for \(H\) is the tangent space at the point \(x\). The energy of these curvatures, being finite, leads to the desired conditions. For an \(m\)-fine compact set \(\Sigma\subset \mathbb{R}^n\) and \(p>m\), the following conditions are equivalent: (i) \(\Sigma\) is an embedded \(C^{1,\tau}\cap W^{2,p}\)-manifold without boundary; (ii) \(\mathcal{K}_G\in L^p(\Sigma,\mathcal{H}^m)\); (iii) there is a map \(H:\Sigma\to G(n,m)\) such that \(\mathcal{K}_{tp}(\cdot, H)\in L^p(\Sigma,\mathcal{H}^m)\). The second section is devoted to some geometrical aspects relative to the Grassmanian space \(G(n,m)\), this is by far the simplest section of the paper. This section ends with two key theorems. One of them, due to \textit{P. Hajłasz} [Potential Anal. 5, No. 4, 403--415 (1996; Zbl 0859.46022)] shows that \(f\in L^p(\Omega)\) belongs to \(W^{1,p}\) if and only if there exists \(g\in L^p(\Omega)\) such that \(|f(x)-f(y)|\leq|x-y|(g(x)+g(y))\). This is the tool to improve the class of the Sobolev space. The other one, due to \textit{G. David} et al. [Commun. Pure Appl. Math. 54, No. 4, 385--449 (2001; Zbl 1031.28004)] gives a condition on \(m\)-fine compact sets to be \(C^{1,\tau}\) submanifolds without boundary. This condition will be satisfied when conditions (ii) or (iii) in the main theorem are provided. The third section is the core of the paper where the implications (ii) \(\Rightarrow\) (i) and (iii) \(\Rightarrow\) (i) are shown. The work in this section is highly non-trivial. A lot of estimates are needed in order to have control on all the defined quantities by constants depending only on \(m\) and \(p\), in fact, a deep analysis of Morrey estimates for the energies of Menger and tangent-point curvatures is done. The final section gives the easier reverse implications. Here, the weight of the arguments relay in the expression of beta numbers for \(W^{2,p}\)-graphs. Notice, that the definition of \(W^{2,p}\)-manifolds is given for the first time at this stage (\(\Sigma\) will be \(W^{2,p}\) if it locally is the graph of a \(W^{2,p}\)-function). Remark that \(W^{2,p}\) implies \(C^1\) by the Sobolev embedding theorem. A significative number of estimates come from previous works (see, e.g., [the second and the third author, Math. Z. 257, 107--130 (2007; Zbl 1354.49028); \textit{S. Blatt} and the first author, Adv. Math. 230, No. 3, 839--852 (2012; Zbl 1246.53005)]). An exhaustive list of references can be found in the paper.

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