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A BV space function is approximately differentiable at almost every point with respect to Lebesgue measure. Its approximate gradient is the density of the absolutely continuous part of its distributional derivative. This does not imply membership in a Sobolev space.

The Lebesgue decomposition theorem separates the absolutely continuous part from the singular part. BV fine structure then splits the latter into the jump part of a BV derivative and the Cantor part of a BV derivative. The density of the absolutely continuous part is the almost-everywhere approximate gradient. These three mutually singular components distinguish smooth variation, surface discontinuities and diffuse singular variation.

First apply Lebesgue decomposition to the derivative measure relative to ${\mathcal{L}}^n$:Here $\nabla u$ is the almost-everywhere approximate gradient, rather than an assertion that $u$ belongs to $W^{1,1}$. Split the singular part into its jump part of a BV derivative and Cantor part of a BV derivative:An approximate jump point has a unit normal ${\nu }_u$ and distinct finite BV traces on a hypersurface $u^{+},u^{-}$, obtained as mean limits on the corresponding two half-balls. Their set $J_u$ is the jump set of a BV function, countably $(n-1)$-rectifiable. Reversing the normal swaps the BV traces on a hypersurface and leaves the displayed measure unchanged. The approximate discontinuity set $S_u$ differs from $J_u$ only by an ${\mathcal{H}}^{n-1}$-null set.

The remaining $D^{c}u=D^{s}u-D^{j}u$ is singular to Lebesgue measure and gives zero mass to every set with sigma-finite ${\mathcal{H}}^{n-1}$ measure. It is diffuse rather than a second jump contribution. In one dimension the three parts are illustrated by an affine function, a step function and the Cantor function, respectively. Countably many jumps therefore do not imply that the singular derivative has no Cantor part of a BV derivative.