Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge / 2018 / iii / Paper 105 / 1

Put $Q=Q_r(x)$ and $v_Q=|Q{|}^{-1}{\int }_{Q}v$. The fundamental theorem of calculus along a line segment, followed by averaging, givesFor fixed $t$, use the change of variables formula $w=y+t(z-y)$. Its Jacobian determinant is $t^n$. The transformed domain $Q_t=y+t(Q-y)$ lies in $Q$, because a cube is a convex set. Moreover, $w\in Q_t$ implies $|w-y|\le \sqrt{n}rt$. Thus Tonelli theorem givesThe diagonal $w=y$ is a null set. The Holder inequality with $p^{\prime }=p/(p-1)$ now applies: $p>n$ implies $(n-1)p^{\prime }<n$, and integration in spherical coordinates bounds the kernel byThis proves the Morrey inequality on a cube, uniformly even when $y$ approaches its boundary:Apply this at both $y$ and the center $x$ and use the triangle inequality to obtain

Let $u_j\in C_c^{\infty }({\mathbb{R}}^n)$ tend to $u$ in the Sobolev space $W^{1,p}$, using density of smooth functions in a Sobolev space. Write $\alpha =1-n/p>0$. Applying the Morrey inequality on a cube to a unit cube centered at $x$, and bounding its average by the Holder inequality, givesfor every smooth $v$. Hence $u_j$ is a Cauchy sequence in the supremum norm and has a bounded continuous limit $u^{\ast }$ by uniform convergence. On every finite-measure cube, this limit is also the $L^p$ limit, so $u=u^{\ast }$ almost everywhere.

For $x\ne y$, choose $r=4|x-y|$, so that $y\in Q_r(x)$. The second estimate from part (a), followed by passage to the limit, givesThus $u^{\ast }$ is a Hölder continuous function andIt is the unique continuous representative: two continuous functions agreeing almost everywhere agree everywhere.

For $1\le p<n$, take a smooth cutoff function $\chi$ equal to one near zero and setIts weak derivative has size $O(|x{|}^{-a-1})$ near zero, whose $p$th power is integrable because $p(a+1)<n$. Thus $u\in W^{1,p}$, but it is essentially unbounded in every neighborhood of zero and has no continuous representative. The value assigned at zero is irrelevant.

Choose $x$ at which $Du(x)$ is finite and the $p$-mean version of the Lebesgue differentiation theorem holds:These conditions hold almost everywhere. On a cube about $x$, subtract the affine function and put $v(y)=u^{\ast }(y)-u^{\ast }(x)-Du(x)\cdot (y-x)$. Its weak derivative is $Dv=Du-Du(x)$ and $v(x)=0$. Approximate $u$ as in part (b) and subtract the same affine function from the approximants. Uniform convergence and convergence of their weak derivatives extend part (a)'s estimate to $v$, givingFor $h\ne 0$, choose $r=4|h|$ and $y=x+h$. It follows thatThis is precisely classical Fréchet derivative differentiability, not merely existence of coordinate derivatives. Therefore the differentiability almost everywhere of supercritical Sobolev functions gives