Structure theorem for compactly supported distributions

Every compactly supported distribution is a finite sum of distributional derivatives of bounded continuous functions. One proof convolves it with a sufficiently high-order Bessel potential and then applies a power of $1-\Delta$.

Every compactly supported distribution on an open set $X$ is a finite sum $u={\sum }_{\alpha }{\partial }^{\alpha }{f}_{\alpha }$ with continuous $f_{\alpha }$ compactly supported inside $X$. One can first write $u={\partial }^{\gamma }F$ for a continuous global convolution primitive, then multiply by a cutoff function equal to one near the support. The identity $\chi {\partial }^{\gamma }F={\sum }_{\beta \le \gamma }(-1{)}^{|\beta |}(\genfrac{}{}{0ex}{}{\gamma }{\beta }){\partial }^{\gamma -\beta }[({\partial }^{\beta }\chi )F]$ localizes every coefficient. Finite global representation can fail for a distribution of unbounded order.

The Bessel potential of order $s$ is the Fourier multiplier $(1+|\xi {|}^2{)}^{-s/2}$. Sufficiently high order turns a compactly supported finite-order distribution into a bounded continuous function.