 Radial Sobolev profile on an annulus

Let $0<a<b<\infty$ and $1\le p<\infty$. A radial function in $W^{1,p}(\{a<|x|<b\})$ has a radial profile in $W^{1,p}(a,b)$; its first weak derivative is the profile of the radial derivative. To see the identity, sum the weak derivative tests against the components of $\varphi (r)x/r$ to obtain $\int g\varphi r^{n-1}=-\int \bar{u}(\varphi r^{n-1}{)}^{\prime }$. Substitute $\varphi =\zeta /r^{n-1}$ for arbitrary $\zeta \in C_c^{\infty }(a,b)$. The weighted Lp norms and $a>0$ give the displayed bound. Radiality of the radial derivative follows by applying a rotation to the weak derivative identity: if $u(Qx)=u(x)$, then $\nabla u(Qx)=Q\nabla u(x)$ almost everywhere, so the radial scalar product is invariant.

For $p>1$, the one-dimensional Sobolev representative obeys $|\bar{u}(r)-\bar{u}(s)|\le |r-s{|}^{1-1/p}\Vert {\bar{u}}^{\prime }{\Vert }_p$. The reverse triangle inequality transfers this to $u$, giving a continuous embedding of this radial Sobolev space into $C^{0,1-1/p}$ on the annulus. The two Hölder seminorms are equal: one inequality follows from $||x|-|y||\le |x-y|$, and the reverse follows by putting both points on the same ray. The restriction $a>0$ is essential for the unweighted profile bound.