Continuity and weak differentiability with continuous weak derivative implies strong continuous differentiability

continuityreal-analysisweak-derivatives

Let $u: \mathbb{R}\to \mathbb{R}$. If $u$ is strongly differentiable (i.e. differentiable in the classic sense) with strong derivative $u'$, then $u$ is also weakly differentiable and every weak derivative equals $u'$ almost everywhere.

Now, assume $u$ is continuous and has a continuous weak derivative: can we conclude that $u$ is continuously differentiable in the strong (i.e. usual) sense?

Best Answer

  • The weak derivative is unique, so there are no "several derivatives" (notice that we don't work with functions, but rather with class of functions).

  • For your second question, the answer is yes. This is a simple consequence of the fundamental theorem of calculus. Moreover, instead of saying that "there is a continuous weak derivative", we rather say that "there is a continuous representative of the derivative".