Abstract
In many metric spaces one can connect an arbitrary pair of points with a curve of finite length, but in Euclidean spaces one can connect a pair of points with a lot of rectifiable curves, curves that are well distributed across a region. In the present paper we give geometric criteria on a metric space under which we can find similar families of curves. We shall find these curves by first solving a “dual” problem of building Lipschitz maps from our metric space into a sphere with good topological properties. These families of curves can be used to control the values of a function in terms of its gradient (suitably interpreted on a general metric space), and to derive Sobolev and Poincaré inequalities.
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The author is supported by the U.S. National Science Foundation and grateful to IHES for its hospitality.
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Semmes, S. Finding curves on general spaces through quantitative topology, with applications to Sobolev and Poincaré inequalities. Selecta Mathematica, New Series 2, 155 (1996). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01587936
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01587936