On the failure of the chain rule for the divergence of Sobolev vector fields

Abstract

We construct a large class of incompressible vector fields with Sobolev regularity, in dimension [Formula: see text], for which the chain rule problem has a negative answer. In particular, for any renormalization map [Formula: see text] (satisfying suitable assumptions) and any (distributional) renormalization defect [Formula: see text] of the form [Formula: see text], where [Formula: see text] is an [Formula: see text] vector field, we can construct an incompressible Sobolev vector field [Formula: see text] and a density [Formula: see text] for which [Formula: see text] but [Formula: see text], provided [Formula: see text].