Clamped second-order Sobolev space ($H_0^2(U)$)

This is the closure of the compactly supported test functions $C_c^{\infty }(U)$ in the $H^2(U)$ norm. On a smooth bounded domain it consists precisely of the $H^2$ functions with zero value and zero normal derivative traces. Tangential first derivatives then vanish as well. The clamped Hessian identity makes the Laplacian norm equivalent to the full $H^2$ norm on this space, enabling a Lax-Milgram theorem treatment of the clamped biharmonic problem.

For $u\in H_0^2(U)$, ${\sum }_{i,j}\Vert {\partial }_{ij}u{\Vert }_2^2=\Vert \Delta u{\Vert }_2^2$. Two integrations by parts prove this for compactly supported test functions, and $H^2$ density extends it to the clamped second-order Sobolev space. Together with the Poincare-Wirtinger inequality applied to the mean-zero first derivatives and the zero-boundary Poincare inequality, it controls the full $H^2$ norm by $\Vert \Delta u{\Vert }_2$. The boundary conditions are essential to this exact identity on bounded domains.