Sobolev regularity and an enhanced Jensen inequality

We derive a new criterion for a real-valued function $u$ to be in the Sobolev space $W^{1,2}(\R^n)$. This criterion consists of comparing the value of a functional $\int f(u)$ with the values of the same functional applied to convolutions of $u$ with a Dirac sequence. The difference of these values converges to zero as the convolutions approach $u$, and we prove that the rate of convergence to zero is connected to regularity: $u\in W^{1,2}$ if and only if the convergence is sufficiently fast. We finally apply our criterium to a minimization problem with constraints, where regularity of minimizers cannot be deduced from the Euler-Lagrange equation.