Uniqueness and Lagrangianity for solutions with lack of integrability of the continuity equation

Abstract: We deal with the uniqueness of distributional solutions to the continuity equation with a Sobolev vector field and with the property of being a Lagrangian solution, that means transported by a flow of the associated ordinary differential equation. We work in a framework with lack of local integrability of the solution, in which the classical DiPerna-Lions theory of uniqueness and Lagrangianity of distributional solutions does not apply due to the insufficient integrability of the commutator. We introduce a general principle to prove that a solution is Lagrangian: we rely on a disintegration along the unique flow and on a new directional Lipschitz extension lemma, used to construct a large class of test functions in the Lagrangian distributional formulation of the continuity equation.