Extension Theorem and Bourgain--Brezis--Mironescu-Type Characterization of Ball Banach Sobolev Spaces on Domains

Abstract: Let $\Omega\subset\mathbb{R}^n$ be a bounded $(\varepsilon,\infty)$-domain with $\varepsilon\in(0,1]$, $X(\mathbb{R}^n)$ a ball Banach function space satisfying some extra mild assumptions, and ${\rho_\nu}{\nu\in(0,\nu_0)}$ with $\nu_0\in(0,\infty)$ a $\nu_0$-radial decreasing approximation of the identity on $\mathbb{R}^n$. In this article, the authors establish two extension theorems, respectively, on the inhomogeneous ball Banach Sobolev space $W^{m,X}(\Omega)$ and the homogeneous ball Banach Sobolev space $\dot{W}^{m,X}(\Omega)$ for any $m\in\mathbb{N}$. On the other hand, the authors prove that, for any $f\in\dot{W}^{1,X}(\Omega)$, $$ \lim{\nu\to0^+} \left|\left[\int_\Omega\frac{|f(\cdot)-f(y)|^p}{ |\cdot-y|^p}\rho_\nu(|\cdot-y|)\,dy \right]^\frac{1}{p}\right|_{X(\Omega)}^p =\frac{2\pi^{\frac{n-1}{2}}\Gamma (\frac{p+1}{2})}{\Gamma(\frac{p+n}{2})} \left|\,\left|\nabla f\right|\,\right|_{X(\Omega)}^p, $$ where $\Gamma$ is the Gamma function and $p\in[1,\infty)$ is related to $X(\mathbb{R}^n)$. Using this asymptotics, the authors further establish a characterization of $W^{1,X}(\Omega)$ in terms of the above limit. To achieve these, the authors develop a machinery via using a method of the extrapolation, two extension theorems on weighted Sobolev spaces, and some recently found profound properties of $W^{1,X}(\mathbb{R}^n)$ to overcome those difficulties caused by that the norm of $X(\mathbb{R}^n)$ has no explicit expression and that $X(\mathbb{R}^n)$ might be neither the reflection invariance nor the translation invariance. This characterization has a wide range of generality and can be applied to various Sobolev-type spaces, such as Morrey [Bourgain--Morrey-type, weighted (or mixed-norm or variable), local (or global) generalized Herz, Lorentz, and Orlicz (or Orlicz-slice)] Sobolev spaces, all of which are new.