Density problems on vector bundles and manifolds

Abstract: We study some canonical differential operators on vector bundles over smooth, complete Riemannian manifolds. Under very general assumptions, we show that smooth, compactly supported sections are dense in the domains of these operators. Furthermore, we show that smooth, compactly supported functions are dense in second order Sobolev spaces on such manifolds under the sole additional assumption that the Ricci curvature is uniformly bounded from below.