Sobolev embeddings, rearrangement-invariant spaces and Frostman measures

Abstract: Sobolev embeddings, of arbitrary order, are considered into function spaces on domains of $\mathbb R^n$ endowed with measures whose decay on balls is dominated by a power $d$ of their radius. Norms in arbitrary rearrangement-invariant spaces are contemplated. A comprehensive approach is proposed based on the reduction of the relevant $n$-dimensional embeddings to one-dimensional Hardy-type inequalities. Interestingly, the latter inequalities depend on the involved measure only through the power $d$. Our results allow for the detection of the optimal target space in Sobolev embeddings, for broad families of norms, in situations where customary techniques do not apply. In particular, new embeddings, with augmented target spaces, are deduced even for standard Sobolev spaces.