Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge / 2017 / iii / Paper 340 / 4 / b / Solution

Take the indicator function $u(x_1,x_2)={\chi }_{\{x_1>1/2\}}$ inside $(0,1{)}^2$. For a compactly supported test vector field, integration in $x_1$ and then $x_2$ givesThe vertical derivative term integrates to zero. The absolute pairing is at most one, and test vector fields with ${\xi }_1=-1$ along all but arbitrarily short endpoint pieces approach one. Thus $|Du|(\Omega )=1$. More explicitly, the distributional derivative is $Du=e_1{\mathcal{H}}^1\upharpoonright \{(1/2,x_2):0<x_2<1\}$, where ${\mathcal{H}}^1$ is Hausdorff measure along the segment. Also $\Vert u{\Vert }_1=1/2$.

A Sobolev space function in $W^{1,1}(\Omega )$ has each weak derivative represented by an $L^1$ density with respect to planar Lebesgue measure. The nonzero segment measure here is singular with respect to that measure, so this requirement fails. Equivalently, the Sobolev fundamental theorem of calculus on lines would require an absolutely continuous representative on almost every horizontal slice, whereas each slice has a jump. ThereforeThis is the bounded-variation step outside W11 example.