Nonzero capacity sets and dense subspaces in scales of Sobolev spaces

Abstract

We show that for a compact set $K\subset{\mathbb R}^n$ of nonzero $\alpha$-capacity, $C_\alpha(K)>0$, $\alpha\geq 1$, the subspace $\overset{\circ}{W}{^{\alpha,2}}(\Omega)$, $\Omega={\mathbb R}^n\setminus K$ in ${W}{^{\alpha,2}}({\mathbb R}^n)$ is dense in $W^{m,2}({\mathbb R}^n)$, $m\leq\alpha-1$, iff the $m$-capacity of $K$ is zero, $C_{m}(K)=0$.