Approximation by mappings with singular Hessian minors
Let $Ω\subset\mathbb R^n$ be a Lipschitz domain. Given $1\leq p<k\leq n$ and any $u\in W^{2,p}(Ω)$ belonging to the little Hölder class $c^{1,α}$, we construct a sequence $u_j$ in the same space with $\operatorname{rank}D^2u_j<k$ almost everywhere such that $u_j\to u$ in $C^{1,α}$ and weakly in $W^{2,p}$. This result is in strong contrast with known regularity behavior of functions in $W^{2,p}$, $p\geq k$, satisfying the same rank inequality.