Infinitesimal isometries on developable surfaces and asymptotic theories for thin developable shells

We perform a detailed analysis of first order Sobolev-regular infinitesimal isometries on developable surfaces without affine regions. We prove that given enough regularity of the surface, any first order infinitesimal isometry can be matched to an infinitesimal isometry of an arbitrarily high order. We discuss the implications of this result for the elasticity of thin developable shells

Approximation by mappings with singular Hessian minors

Let $\Omega\subset\mathbb R^n$ be a Lipschitz domain. Given $1\leq p<k\leq n$ and any $u\in W^{2,p}(\Omega)$ belonging to the little H\"older class $c^{1,\alpha}$, 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 $C^{1,\alpha}$ 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.Comment: 18 page

Rigidity and regularity of co-dimension one Sobolev isometric immersions

We prove the developability and $C^{1,1/2}$ regularity of $W^{2,2}$ isometric immersions of $n$-dimensional domains into $R^{n+1}$. As a conclusion we show that any such Sobolev isometry can be approximated by smooth isometries in the $W^{2,2}$ strong norm, provided the domain is $C^1$ and convex. Both results fail to be true if the Sobolev regularity is weaker than $W^{2,2}$.Comment: 43 pages, 15 figure