Higher order rectifiability of measures via averaged discrete curvatures

We provide a sufficient geometric condition for $\mathbb{R}^n$ to be countably $(\mu,m)$ rectifiable of class $\mathscr{C}^{1,\alpha}$ (using the terminology of Federer), where $\mu$ is a Radon measure having positive lower density and finite upper density $\mu$ almost everywhere. Our condition involves integrals of certain many-point interaction functions (discrete curvatures) which measure flatness of simplices spanned by the parameters.Comment: Thoroughly revised and shortened version. A bit stronger result about measures and not only sets. Cleaner statement of the main result. Concise introduction. No claims to build a general theor

Geometric Sobolev-like embedding using high-dimensional Menger-like curvature

We study a modified version of Lerman-Whitehouse Menger-like curvature defined for m+2 points in an n-dimensional Euclidean space. For 1 <= l <= m+2 and an m-dimensional subset S of R^n we also introduce global versions of this discrete curvature, by taking supremum with respect to m+2-l points on S. We then define geometric curvature energies by integrating one of the global Menger-like curvatures, raised to a certain power p, over all l-tuples of points on S. Next, we prove that if S is compact and m-Ahlfors regular and if p is greater than ml, then the P. Jones' \beta-numbers of S must decay as r^t with r \to 0 for some t in (0,1). If S is an immersed C^1 manifold or a bilipschitz image of such set then it follows that it is Reifenberg flat with vanishing constant, hence (by a theorem of David, Kenig and Toro) an embedded C^{1,t} manifold. We also define a wide class of other sets for which this assertion is true. After that, we bootstrap the exponent t to the optimal one a = 1 - ml/p showing an analogue of the Morrey-Sobolev embedding theorem. Moreover, we obtain a qualitative control over the local graph representations of S only in terms of the energy.Comment: I removed Example 3.11, which was wrong in the sense that the \beta-numbers for this set do not decay as r^

Equivalence of the ellipticity conditions for geometric variational problems

We exploit the so called atomic condition, recently defined by De Philippis, De Rosa, and Ghiraldin in [Comm. Pure Appl. Math.] and proved to be necessary and sufficient for the validity of the anisotropic counterpart of the Allard rectifiability theorem. In particular, we address an open question of this seminal work, showing that the atomic condition implies the strict Almgren geometric ellipticity condition

Compactness and isotopy finiteness for submanifolds with uniformly bounded geometric curvature energies

In this paper, we establish compactness for various geometric curvature energies including integral Menger curvature, and tangent-point repulsive potentials, defined a priori on the class of compact, embedded $m$-dimensional Lipschitz submanifolds in ${\mathbb{R}}^n$. It turns out that due to a smoothing effect any sequence of submanifolds with uniformly bounded energy contains a subsequence converging in $C^1$ to a limit submanifold. This result has two applications. The first one is an isotopy finiteness theorem: there are only finitely many isotopy types of such submanifolds below a given energy value, and we provide explicit bounds on the number of isotopy types in terms of the respective energy. The second one is the lower semicontinuity - with respect to Hausdorff-convergence of submanifolds - of all geometric curvature energies under consideration, which can be used to minimise each of these energies within prescribed isotopy classes.Comment: 44 pages, 5 figure

Characterizing W2,pW^{2,p}~submanifolds by pp-integrability of global curvatures

We give sufficient and necessary geometric conditions, guaranteeing that an immersed compact closed manifold $\Sigma^m\subset \R^n$ of class $C^1$ and of arbitrary dimension and codimension (or, more generally, an Ahlfors-regular compact set $\Sigma$ satisfying a mild general condition relating the size of holes in $\Sigma$ to the flatness of $\Sigma$ measured in terms of beta numbers) is in fact an embedded manifold of class $C^{1,\tau}\cap W^{2,p}$, where $p>m$ and $\tau=1-m/p$. The results are based on a careful analysis of Morrey estimates for integral curvature--like energies, with integrands expressed geometrically, in terms of functions that are designed to measure either (a) the shape of simplices with vertices on $\Sigma$ or (b) the size of spheres tangent to $\Sigma$ at one point and passing through another point of $\Sigma$. Appropriately defined \emph{maximal functions} of such integrands turn out to be of class $L^p(\Sigma)$ for $p>m$ if and only if the local graph representations of $\Sigma$ have second order derivatives in $L^p$ and $\Sigma$ is embedded. There are two ingredients behind this result. One of them is an equivalent definition of Sobolev spaces, widely used nowadays in analysis on metric spaces. The second one is a careful analysis of local Reifenberg flatness (and of the decay of functions measuring that flatness) for sets with finite curvature energies. In addition, for the geometric curvature energy involving tangent spheres we provide a nontrivial lower bound that is attained if and only if the admissible set $\Sigma$ is a round sphere.Comment: 44 pages, 2 figures; several minor correction

Uniqueness of critical points of the anisotropic isoperimetric problem for finite perimeter sets

Given an elliptic integrand of class $\mathscr{C}^{3}$, we prove that finite unions of disjoint open Wulff shapes with equal radii are the only volume-constrained critical points of the anisotropic surface energy among all sets with finite perimeter and reduced boundary almost equal to its closure