We study the contraction semigroups of elliptic quadratic differential operators. Elliptic quadratic differential operators are the non-selfadjoint operators defined in the Weyl quantization by complex-valued elliptic quadratic symbols. We establish in this paper that under the assumption of ellipticity, as soon as the real part of their Weyl symbols is a non-zero non-positive quadratic form, the norm of contraction semigroups generated by these operators decays exponentially in time.
If $X$ is a non-degenerate vector field on ${\bf R}$ and $H=-X^2$ we examine conditions for the closure of $H$ to generate a continuous semigroup on $L_\infty$ which extends to the $L_p$-spaces. We give an example which cannot be extended and an example which extends but for which the real part of the generator on $L_2$ is not lower semibounded.
Given a bounded domain in the Euclidean space satisfying the uniform outer cone condition, we show that a uniformly elliptic operator of second order with continuous second order coefficients generates a holomorphic semigroup on the space of all continuous functions vanishing at the boundary. In particular, Lipschitz domains are allowed. This result was so far known under considerable stronger regularity assumptions. Also the Dirichlet problem is considered for such operators.
A class of vector-valued elliptic operators with unbounded coefficients, coupled up to the second-order is investigated in the Lebesgue space $L^p(\mathbb R^d;\mathbb R^m)$ with $p \in (1,\infty)$, providing sufficient conditions for the generation of an analytic $C_0$-semigroup $T(t)$. Under further assumptions, a characterization of the domain of the infinitesimal generator is given.
In this paper, we use a probabilistic approach to show that there exists a unique, bounded continuous solution to the Dirichlet boundary value problem for a general class of second order non-symmetric elliptic operators $L$ with singular coefficients, which does not necessarily have the maximum principle. The theory of Dirichlet forms and heat kernel estimates play a crucial role in our approach. A probabilistic representation of the non-symmetric semigroup $\{T_t\}_{t\ge 0}$ generated by $L$ is also given.
Second order divergence form operators are studied on an open set with various boundary conditions. It is shown that the p-ellipticity condition of Carbonaro-Dragicevic and Dindos-Pipher implies extrapolation to a holomorphic semigroup on Lebesgue spaces in a p-dependent range of exponents that extends the maximal range for general strictly elliptic coefficients. Results have immediate consequences for the harmonic analysis of such operators, including Hoo-calculi and Riesz transforms.
We study $L^p$-theory of second-order elliptic divergence type operators with complex measurable coefficients. The major aspect is that we allow complex coefficients in the main part of the operator, too. We investigate generation of analytic $C_0$-semigroups under very general conditions on the coefficients, related to the notion of form-boundedness. We determine an interval $J$ in the $L^p$-scale, not necessarily containing $p=2$, in which one obtains a consistent family of quasi-contractive semigroups. This interval is close to optimal, as shown by several examples. In the case of uniform e…
We study non-elliptic quadratic differential operators. Quadratic differential operators are non-selfadjoint operators defined in the Weyl quantization by complex-valued quadratic symbols. When the real part of their Weyl symbols is a non-positive quadratic form, we point out the existence of a particular linear subspace in the phase space, intrinsically associated to the Weyl symbols, called a singular space, such that when the singular space has a symplectic structure, the associated heat semigroup is smoothing in every direction of its symplectic orthogonal complement. When the Weyl symbol …
We consider a class of vector-valued elliptic operators with unbounded coefficients, coupled up to the first-order, in the Lebesgue space L^p(R^d;R^m) with p in (1,\infty). Sufficient conditions to prove generation results of an analytic C_0-semigroup T(t), together with a characterization of the domain of its generator, are given. Some results related to the hypercontractivity and the ultraboundedness of the semigroup are also established.
We study the large scale behavior of elliptic systems with stationary random coefficient that have only slowly decaying correlations. To this aim we analyze the so-called corrector equation, a degenerate elliptic equation posed in the probability space. In this contribution, we use a parabolic approach and optimally quantify the time decay of the semigroup. For the theoretical point of view, we prove an optimal decay estimate of the gradient and flux of the corrector when spatially averaged over a scale R larger than 1. For the numerical point of view, our results provide convenient tools for …
In this note, we establish $L^p$-bounds for the semigroup $e^{-tq^w(x,D)}$, $t \ge 0$, generated by a quadratic differential operator $q^w(x,D)$ on $\mathbb{R}^n$ that is the Weyl quantization of a complex-valued quadratic form $q$ defined on the phase space $\mathbb{R}^{2n}$ with non-negative real part $\textrm{Re} \, q \ge 0$ and trivial singular space. Specifically, we show that $e^{-tq^w(x,D)}$ is bounded $L^p(\mathbb{R}^n) \rightarrow L^q(\mathbb{R}^n)$ for all $t > 0$ whenever $1 \le p \le q \le \infty$, and we prove bounds on $||e^{-tq^w(x,D)}||_{L^p \rightarrow L^q}$ in both the large …
We give three examples of second-order elliptic operators with nonlocal boundary conditions of the Ventsel type that admit a closure in the space of continuous functions, but do not generate a Feller semigroup (i.e., a strongly continuous contractive nonnegative semigroup).
In a recent article, Arendt and ter Elst have shown that every sectorial form is in a natural way associated with the generator of an analytic strongly continuous semigroup, even if the form fails to be closable. As an intermediate step they have introduced so-called j-elliptic forms, which generalises the concept of elliptic forms in the sense of Lions. We push their analysis forward in that we discuss some perturbation and convergence results for semigroups associated with j-elliptic forms. In particular, we study convergence with respect to the trace norm or other Schatten norms. We apply o…
We study the infinitesimal generator of the Poisson semigroup in $L^p$ associated with homogeneous, second-order, strongly elliptic systems with constant complex coefficients in the upper-half space, which is proved to be the Dirichlet-to-Normal mapping in this setting. Also, its domain is identified as the linear subspace of the $L^p$-based Sobolev space of order one on the boundary of the upper-half space consisting of functions for which the Regularity problem is solvable. Moreover, for a class of systems containing the Lamé system, as well as all second-order, scalar elliptic operators, wi…
Examples are given of degenerate elliptic operators on smooth, compact manifolds that are not globally regular in $C^\infty$. These operators degenerate only in a rather mild fashion. Certain weak regularity results are proved, and an interpretation of global irregularity in terms of the associated heat semigroup is given.
We study the vertical and conical square functions defined via elliptic operators in divergence form. In general, vertical and conical square functions are equivalent operators just in $L^2$. But when this square functions are defined through the heat or Poisson semigroup that arise from an elliptic operator, we are able to find open intervals containing $2$ where the equivalence holds. The intervals in question depend ultimately on the range where the semigroup is uniformly bounded or has off-diagonal estimates. As a consequence we obtain new boundedness results for some square functions. Bes…
We revisit our study of general transport operator with general force field and general invariant measure by considering, in the $L^1$ setting, the linear transport operator $\T_H$ associated to a linear and positive boundary operator $H$ of unit norm. It is known that in this case an extension of $\T_H$ generates a substochastic (i.e. positive contraction) $C_0$-semigroup $(V_H(t))_{t\geq 0}$. We show here that $(V_H(t))_{t\geq 0}$ is the smallest substochastic $C_0$-semigroup with the above mentioned property and provides a representation of $(V_H(t))_{t \geq 0}$ as the sum of an expansion s…
We revise the operator-norm convergence of the Trotter product formula for a pair {A,B} of generators of semigroups on a Banach space. Operator-norm convergence holds true if the dominating operator A generates a holomorphic contraction semigroup and B is a A-infinitesimally small generator of a contraction semigroup, in particular, if B is a bounded operator. Inspired by studies of evolution semigroups it is shown in the present paper that the operator-norm convergence generally fails even for bounded operators B if A is not a holomorphic generator. Moreover, it is shown that operator norm co…
We investigate off-diagonal decay properties of the generalized Stokes semigroup with bounded measurable coefficients on $\mathrm{L}^2_σ (\mathbb{R}^d)$. Such estimates are well-known for elliptic equations in the form of pointwise heat kernel bounds and for elliptic systems in the form of integrated off-diagonal estimates. On our way to unveil this off-diagonal behavior we prove resolvent estimates in Morrey spaces $\mathrm{L}^{2 , ν} (\mathbb{R}^d)$ with $0 \leq ν< 2$.
We study accretive quadratic operators with zero singular spaces. These degenerate non-selfadjoint differential operators are known to be hypoelliptic and to generate contraction semigroups which are smoothing in the Schwartz space for any positive time. In this work, we study the short-time asymptotics of the regularizing effect induced by these semigroups. We show that these short-time asymptotics of the regularizing effect depend on the directions of the phase space, and that this dependence can be nicely understood through the structure of the singular space. As a byproduct of these result…
In this paper we establish generation of analytic strongly continuous semigroup in $L^p$--spaces for the symmetric matrix Schrödinger operator $div(Q\nabla u)-Vu$, where, for every $x\in\mathbb{R}^d$, $V(x)=(v_{ij}(x))$ is a semi-definite positive and symmetric matrix. The diffusion matrix $Q(\cdot)$ is supposed to be strongly elliptic and bounded and the potential $V$ satisfies the weak condition $v_{ij}\in L^1_{loc}(\mathbb{R}^d)$, for all $i,j\in\{1,\dots,m\}$. We also characterize positivity of the semigroup and we investigate on its compactness.
In this paper we consider the symmetric Kolmogorov operator $L=Δ+\frac{\nabla μ}μ\cdot \nabla$ on $L^2(\mathbb R^N,dμ)$, where $μ$ is the density of a probability measure on $\mathbb R^N$. Under general conditions on $μ$ we prove first weighted Rellich's inequalities with optimal constants and deduce that the operators $L$ and $-L^2$ with domain $H^2(\mathbb R^N,dμ)$ and $H^4(\mathbb R^N,dμ)$ respectively, generate analytic semigroups of contractions on $L^2(\mathbb R^N,dμ)$. We observe that $dμ$ is the unique invariant measure for the semigroup generated by $-L^2$ and as a consequence we desc…
In this paper we prove that, under suitable assumptions on α > 0, the operator L = (1 + |x|α)Δadmits realizations generating contraction or analytic semigroups in Lp (RN). For some values of α, we also explicitly characterize the domain of L. Finally, some informations about the location and composition of the spectrum are given.
In this article, we deal with some problems involving a class of singularly perturbed elliptic operator. We prove the asymptotic preserving of a general Galerkin method associated to a semilinear problem. We use a particular Galerkin approximation to estimate the convergence rate on the whole domain, for the linear problem. Finally, we study the asymptotic behavior of the semigroup generated.
Based on Leray's formulation of the Navier-Stokes equations and the conditions of the exact linear representation of the nonlinear problem found in this paper, a compact explicit expression for the exact operator solution of the Navier-Stokes equations is given. It is shown that the introduced linear operator for Leray's equations is the generator of one-parameter contraction semigroup. This semigroup yields the existence of a unique and smooth classical solution of the associated Cauchy problem of Navier-Stokes equations in space $\mathbb{R}^3$ under smooth initial conditions.
We provide a novel approach to the numerical solution of the family of nonlocal elliptic equations $(-Δ)^su=f$ in $Ω$, subject to some homogeneous boundary conditions $\mathcal{B}(u)=0$ on $\partial Ω$, where $s\in(0,1)$, $Ω\subset \mathbb{R}^n$ is a bounded domain, and $(-Δ)^s$ is the spectral fractional Laplacian associated to $\mathcal{B}$ on $\partial Ω$. We use the solution representation $(-Δ)^{-s}f$ together with its singular integral expression given by the method of semigroups. By combining finite element discretizations for the heat semigroup with monotone quadratures for the singula…
We generalise the theory of energy functionals used in the study of gradient systems to the case where the domain of definition of the functional cannot be embedded into the Hilbert space $H$ on which the associated operator acts, such as when $H$ is a trace space. We show that under weak conditions on the functional $φ$ and the map $j$ from the effective domain of $φ$ to $H$, which in opposition to the classical theory does not have to be injective or even continuous, the operator on $H$ naturally associated with the pair $(φ,j)$ nevertheless generates a nonlinear semigroup of contractions on…
Given a complex, elliptic coefficient function we investigate for which values of $p$ the corresponding second-order divergence form operator, complemented with Dirichlet, Neumann or mixed boundary conditions, generates a strongly continuous semigroup on $\mathrm{L}^p(Ω)$. Additional properties like analyticity of the semigroup, $\mathrm{H}^\infty$-calculus and maximal regularity are also discussed. Finally we prove a perturbation result for real coefficients that gives the whole range of $p$'s for small imaginary parts of the coefficients. Our results are based on the recent notion of $p$-ell…
In this work, we consider a class of second order uniformly elliptic operators with smooth and bounded coefficients. We provide some estimates on the norm of the semigroup generated by these operators acting on weighted Sobolev spaces, where the weight satisfies some specific conditions. Our proof relies on a classical bound for the derivatives of fundamental solution to parabolic equations.
This is the second part of a series of four articles on weighted norm inequalities, off-diagonal estimates and elliptic operators. We consider a substitute to the notion of pointwise bounds for kernels of operators which usually is a measure of decay. This substitute is that of off-diagonal estimates expressed in terms of local and scale invariant $L^p-L^q$ estimates. We propose a definition in spaces of homogeneous type that is stable under composition. It is particularly well suited to semigroups. We study the case of semigroups generated by elliptic operators.
This article focuses on $L^p$ estimates for objects associated to elliptic operators in divergence form: its semigroup, the gradient of the semigroup, functional calculus, square functions and Riesz transforms. We introduce four critical numbers associated to the semigroup and its gradient that completely rule the ranges of exponents for the $L^p$ estimates. It appears that the case $p<2$ already treated earlier is radically different from the case $p>2$ which is new. We thus recover in a unified and coherent way many $L^p$ estimates and give further applications. The key tools from harmonic a…
We investigate selfadjoint $C_0$-semigroups on Euclidean domains satisfying Gaussian upper bounds. Major examples are semigroups generated by second order uniformly elliptic operators with Kato potentials and magnetic fields. We study the long time behaviour of the $L_\infty$ operator norm of the semigroup. As an application we prove a new $L_\infty$-bound for the torsion function of a Euclidean domain that is close to optimal.
We develop a systematic theory of eventually positive semigroups of linear operators mainly on spaces of continuous functions. By eventually positive we mean that for every positive initial condition the solution to the corresponding Cauchy problem is positive for large enough time. Characterisations of such semigroups are given by means of resolvent properties of the generator and Perron--Frobenius type spectral conditions. We apply these characterisations to prove eventual positivity of several examples of semigroups including some generated by fourth order elliptic operators and a delay dif…
For an increasing sequence $(T_n)$ of one-parameter semigroups of sub Markovian kernel operators over a Polish space, we study the limit semigroup and prove sufficient conditions for it to be strongly Feller. In particular, we show that the strong Feller property carries over from the approximating semigroups to the limit semigroup if the resolvent of the latter maps the constant 1 function to a continuous function. This is instrumental in the study of elliptic operators on $\mathbb{R}^d$ with unbounded coefficients: our abstract result enables us to assign a semigroup to such an operator and …
Using an approach based on the techniques of FBI transforms, we give a new simple proof of the global subelliptic estimates for non-selfadjoint non-elliptic quadratic differential operators, under a natural averaging condition on the Weyl symbols of the operators, established by the second author. The loss of the derivatives in the subelliptic estimates depends directly on algebraic properties of the Hamilton maps of the quadratic symbols. Using the FBI point of view, we also give accurate smoothing estimates of Gelfand-Shilov type for the associated heat semigroup in the limit of small times.
We give an overview of the generalized Calderón-Zygmund theory for "non-integral" singular operators, that is, operators without kernels bounds but appropriate off-diagonal estimates. This theory is powerful enough to obtain weighted estimates for such operators and their commutators with $\BMO$ functions. $L^p-L^q$ off-diagonal estimates when $p\le q$ play an important role and we present them. They are particularly well suited to the semigroups generated by second order elliptic operators and the range of exponents $(p,q)$ rules the $L^p$ theory for many operators constructed from the semigr…
On a doubling metric measure space endowed with a "carré du champ", we consider $L^p$ estimates $(G_p)$ of the gradient of the heat semigroup and scale-invariant $L^p$ Poincaré inequalities $(P_p)$. We show that the combination of $(G_p)$ and $(P_p)$ for $p\ge 2$ always implies two-sided Gaussian heat kernel bounds. The case $p=2$ is a famous theorem of Saloff-Coste, of which we give a shorter proof, without parabolic Moser iteration. We also give a more direct proof of the main result in \cite{HS}. This relies in particular on a new notion of $L^p$ Hölder regularity for a semigroup and on a c…
