On an open question about functions of bounded variation. (Q1396206)

The author adresses an open question posed by \textit{J. Bourgain}, \textit{H. Brezis} and \textit{P. Mironescu} [``Another look at Sobolev spaces'', in: J. L. Menaldi, E. Rofman, A. Sulem (eds.), Optimal control and partial differential equations. In honour of Professor Alain Bensoussan's 60th Birthday (IOS Press, Amsterdam), 439--455 (2001)]. The question raised by Bourgain, Brezis, and Mironescu was if \(f\in \text{BV}(\Omega)\), \(\Omega\subset\mathbb{R}^n\), do we then have \[ \lim_{i\to\infty} \int_\Omega \int_\Omega [\{| f(x)- f(y)|\}/(| x-y|)]\rho_i(x- y)\,dx\,dy= K_{1,n} \int_\Omega|\nabla f|, \] \(K_{1,n}\) and \(\rho_i\) being, respectively, a constant depending only on \(n\), and a sequence of radial mollifiers. It may be pointed out that L. Ambrosio has already independently obtained a proof of the main result of this note.