Structure theory of $BV$ functions and finite perimeter sets on Riemannian manifolds

Abstract

We develop the theory of functions of bounded variation and the structure theory of finite-perimeter sets on arbitrary Riemannian manifolds without relying on global curvature bounds or completeness of the manifold. To this end, we build a localization framework that permits a synthesis of techniques from Euclidean geometric measure theory and analysis on metric measure spaces while preserving genuinely Riemannian features, such as polar and normal vector fields, reduced boundaries, and approximate tangent spaces. As a consequence, we recover key results of the Euclidean theory, such as a differentiation theorem for a Riemannian generalization of vector-valued measures and the structure theorems by De Giorgi and Federer, formulated intrinsically on Riemannian manifolds. This makes a large portion of the classical Euclidean $BV$ theory available to the Riemannian setting. We demonstrate this by providing the theoretical background for boundary value problems on domains in manifolds, including trace and Gauss-Green theorems. Finally, we prove an approximation result for finite-perimeter sets in a strict sense that respects a prescribed Dirichlet boundary portion of a given ambient domain and apply this to prove Gamma-convergence of a family of energy functionals for capillarity problems with mixed boundary conditions.