Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-4rdpn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-19T08:46:49.077Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

On regularized distance and related functions

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 November 2011

L. E. Fraenkel
Affiliation:
Mathematics Division, University of Sussex

Synopsis

Let F be any closed subset of ℝN. Stein's regularized distance is a smooth (C∞) function, defined on the complement cF, that approximates the distance from F of any point x ∈ cF in the manner shown by the inequalities (*) in the Introduction below. In this paper we use a method different from Stein's to construct a one-parameter family of smooth approximations to any positive Lipschitz continuous function, with the effect that the constants in (*) can be made arbitrarily close to 1. It is shown that partial derivatives of order two or more, while necessarily unbounded, are best possible in order of magnitude.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Society of Edinburgh 1979

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1Stein, E. M.. Singular integrals and differentiability properties of functions (Princeton: Univ. Press, 1970).Google Scholar
2Fédérer, H.. Geometric measure theory (Berlin: Springer, 1969).Google Scholar
3Morrey, C. B.. Multiple integrals in the calculus of variations (Berlin: Springer, 1966).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
4Isaacson, E. and Keller, H. B.. Analysis of numerical methods (New York: Wiley, 1966).Google Scholar
5Bernstein, S.. Leçons sur les propriétés extrémales et la meilleure approximation des fonctions analytiques d'une variable réelle reprinted in L'Approximation by Bernstein, S. and de La Vallée Poussin, S., (New York: Chelsea, 1970).Google Scholar
6Fraenkel, L. E.. On regularity of the boundary in the theory of Sobolev spaces. Proc. London Math. Soc, in press.Google Scholar