We consider second order divergence form elliptic operators with $W^{1,1}$ coefficients, in a uniform domain $Ω$ with Ahlfors regular boundary. We show that the $A_\infty$ property of the elliptic measure associated to any such operator implies that $Ω$ is a set of locally finite perimeter whose boundary, $\partialΩ$, is rectifiable. As a corollary we show that for this type of operators, absolute continuity of the surface measure with respect to the elliptic measure is enough to guarantee rectifiability of the boundary. In the case that the coefficients are continuous we obtain additional information about $Ω$.
Let $Ω\subset \mathbb{R}^{n+1}$, $n\geq 2$, be 1-sided NTA domain (aka uniform domain), i.e. a domain which satisfies interior Corkscrew and Harnack Chain conditions, and assume that $\partialΩ$ is $n$-dimensional Ahlfors-David regular. We characterize the rectifiability of $\partialΩ$ in terms of the absolute continuity of surface measure with respect to harmonic measure. We also show that these are equivalent to the fact that $\partialΩ$ can be covered $\mathcal{H}^n$-a.e. by a countable union of portions of boundaries of bounded chord-arc subdomains of $Ω$ and to the fact that $\partialΩ$ p…
The present paper establishes the correspondence between the properties of the solutions of a class of PDEs and the geometry of sets in Euclidean space. We settle the question of whether (quantitative) absolute continuity of the elliptic measure with respect to the surface measure and uniform rectifiability of the boundary are equivalent, in an optimal class of divergence form elliptic operators satisfying a suitable Carleson measure condition. The result can be viewed as a quantitative analogue of the Wiener criterion adapted to the singular $L^p$ data case. We split our proof on two main ste…
In some former works of Azzam and Tolsa it was shown that $n$-rectifiability can be characterized in terms of a square function involving the David-Semmes $β_2$ coefficients. In the present paper we construct some counterexamples which show that a similar characterization does not hold for the $β_p$ coefficients with $p\neq2$. This is in strong contrast with what happens in the case of uniform $n$-rectifiability. In the second part of this paper we provide an alternative argument for a recent result of Edelen, Naber and Valtorta about the $n$-rectifiability of measures with bounded lower $n$-d…
The present paper, along with its sequel, establishes the correspondence between the properties of the solutions of a class of PDEs and the geometry of sets in Euclidean space. We settle the question of whether (quantitative) absolute continuity of the elliptic measure with respect to the surface measure and uniform rectifiability of the boundary are equivalent, in an optimal class of divergence form elliptic operators satisfying a suitable Carleson measure condition. The result can be viewed as a quantitative analogue of the Wiener criterion adapted to the singular $L^p$ data case. This paper…
The present paper, along with its companion [Hofmann, Martell, Mayboroda, Toro, Zhao, arXiv:1710.06157], establishes the correspondence between the properties of the solutions of a class of PDEs and the geometry of sets in Euclidean space. We settle the question of whether (quantitative) absolute continuity of the elliptic measure with respect to the surface measure and uniform rectifiability of the boundary are equivalent, in an optimal class of divergence form elliptic operators satisfying a suitable Carleson measure condition. The result can be viewed as a quantitative analogue of the Wiene…
A Radon measure $μ$ is $n$-rectifiable if it is absolutely continuous with respect to $\mathcal{H}^n$ and $μ$-almost all of $\text{supp}\,μ$ can be covered by Lipschitz images of $\mathbb{R}^n$. In this paper we give two sufficient conditions for rectifiability, both in terms of square functions of flatness-quantifying coefficients. The first condition involves the so-called $α$ and $β_2$ numbers. The second one involves $α_2$ numbers -- coefficients quantifying flatness via Wasserstein distance $W_2$. Both conditions are necessary for rectifiability, too -- the first one was shown to be neces…
Let $Ω\subset\mathbb{R}^{n+1}$, $n\geq2$, be an open set with Ahlfors-David regular boundary that satisfies the corkscrew condition. We consider a uniformly elliptic operator $L$ in divergence form associated with a matrix $A$ with real, merely bounded and possibly non-symmetric coefficients, which are also locally Lipschitz and satisfy suitable Carleson type estimates. In this paper we show that if $L^*$ is the operator in divergence form associated with the transpose matrix of $A$, then $\partialΩ$ is uniformly $n$-rectifiable if and only if every bounded solution of $Lu=0$ and every bounded…
We identify a set of sufficient local conditions under which a significant portion of a Radon measure $μ$ on $\mathbb{R}^{n+1}$ with compact support can be covered by an $n$-uniformly rectifiable set at the level of a ball $B\subset \mathbb{R}^{n+1}$ such that $μ(B)\approx r(B)^n$. This result involves a flatness condition, formulated in terms of the so-called $β_1$-number of $B$, and the $L^2(μ|_B)$-boundedness, as well as a control on the mean oscillation on the ball, of the operator \begin{equation} T_μf(x)=\int \nabla_x\mathcal{E}(x,y)f(y)\,dμ(y). \end{equation} Here $\mathcal{E}(\cdot,\cd…
A Radon measure $μ$ is $n$-rectifiable if $μ\ll\mathcal{H}^n$ and $μ$-almost all of $\text{supp}\,μ$ can be covered by Lipschitz images of $\mathbb{R}^n$. In this paper we give a necessary condition for rectifiability in terms of the so-called $α_2$ numbers -- coefficients quantifying flatness using Wasserstein distance $W_2$. In a recent article we showed that the same condition is also sufficient for rectifiability, and so we get a new characterization of rectifiable measures.
We prove a compactness principle for the anisotropic formulation of the Plateau problem in any codimension, in the same spirit of the previous works of the authors \cite{DelGhiMag,DePDeRGhi,DeLDeRGhi16}. In particular, we perform a new strategy for the proof of the rectifiability of the minimal set, based on the new anisotropic counterpart of the Allard rectifiability theorem proved by the authors in \cite{DePDeRGhi2}. As a consequence we provide a new proof of Reifenberg existence theorem.
In this paper it is shown that if $μ$ is a finite Radon measure in $\mathbb R^d$ which is $n$-rectifiable and $1\leq p\leq 2$, then $$\int_0^\infty β_{μ,p}^n(x,r)^2\,\frac{dr}r<\infty \quad {for $μ$-a.e. $x\in\mathbb R^d$,}$$ where $$β_{μ,p}^n(x,r) = \inf_L (\frac1{r^n} \int_{\bar B(x,r)} (\frac{\mathrm dist(y,L)}{r})^p\,dμ(y))^{1/p},$$ with the infimum taken over all the $n$-planes $L\subset \mathbb R^d$. The $β_{μ,p}^n$ coefficients are the same as the ones considered by David and Semmes in the setting of the so called uniform $n$-rectifiability. An analogous necessary condition for $n$-rect…
In this paper, we characterize the rectifiability (both uniform and not) of an Ahlfors regular set, E, of arbitrary co-dimension by the behavior of a regularized distance function in the complement of that set. In particular, we establish a certain version of the Riesz transform characterization of rectifiability for lower-dimensional sets. We also uncover a special situation in which the regularized distance is itself a solution to a degenerate elliptic operator in the complement of E. This allows us to precisely compute the harmonic measure of those sets associated to this degenerate operato…
The present paper establishes equivalence between uniform rectifiability of the boundary of a domain and the property that the Green function for elliptic operators is well approximated by affine functions (distance to the hyperplanes). The results are novel in a variety of ways, in particular (1) this is the first time the underlying property of the control of the Green function by affine functions, or by the distance to the boundary, in the sense of the Carleson prevalent sets, appears in the literature; the "direct" result established here is new even in the half space; (2) the results are …
Let $Ω$ be an open set with Ahlfors-David regular boundary satisfying the corkscrew condition. When $Ω$ is connected in some quantitative form one can establish that for any real elliptic operator with bounded coefficients, the quantitative absolute continuity of elliptic measures is equivalent to the fact that all bounded null solutions satisfy Carleson measure estimates. In turn, in the same setting these equivalent properties are stable under Fefferman-Kenig-Pipher perturbations. However, without connectivity, there is no Fefferman-Kenig-Pipher perturbation result available. In this paper, …
We show that if $Ω$ is a vanishing chord-arc domain and $L$ is a divergence-form elliptic operator with Hölder-continuous coefficient matrix, then $\log k_L \in VMO$, where $k_L$ is the elliptic kernel for $L$ in the domain $Ω$. This extends the previous work of Kenig and Toro in the case of the Laplacian.
We consider a certain class of second order, variable coefficient divergence form elliptic operators, in a uniform domain $Ω$ with Ahlfors regular boundary, and we show that the $A_\infty$ property of the elliptic measure associated to any such operator and its transpose imply that the domain is in fact NTA (and hence chord-arc). The converse was already known, and follows from work of Kenig and Pipher.
We prove new $L^p$-$L^q$-estimates for solutions to elliptic differential operators with constant coefficients in $\mathbb{R}^3$. We use the estimates for the decay of the Fourier transform of particular surfaces in $\mathbb{R}^3$ with vanishing Gaussian curvature due to Erdős--Salmhofer to derive new Fourier restriction--extension estimates. These allow for constructing distributional solutions in $L^q(\mathbb{R}^3)$ for $L^p$-data via limiting absorption by well-known means.
In this paper we establish commmutator estimates for the Dirichlet-to-Neumann Map associated to a divergence form elliptic operator in the upper half-space $\mathbb{R}^{n+1}_+:=\{(x,t)\in \mathbb{R}^n \times (0,\infty)\}$, with uniformly complex elliptic, $L^{\infty}$, $t$-independent coefficients. By a standard pull-back mechanism, these results extend corresponding results of Kenig, Lin and Shen for the Laplacian in a Lipschitz domain, which have application to the theory of homogenization.
We study resolvent approximations for elliptic differential nonselfadjoint operators with periodic coefficients in the limit of the small period. The class of operators covered by our analysis includes uniformly elliptic families with bounded coefficients and also with unbounded coefficients from the John-Nirenberg space $BMO$ (bounded mean oscillation). We apply the modified method of the first approximation with the usage of Steklov's smoothing.
We prove the unique solvability of second order elliptic equations in non-divergence form in Sobolev spaces. The coefficients of the second order terms are measurable in one variable and VMO in other variables. From this result, we obtain the weak uniqueness of the martingale problem associated with the elliptic equations.
In this paper, we review some results over the last 10-15 years on elliptic and parabolic equations with discontinuous coefficients. We begin with an approach given by N. V. Krylov to parabolic equations in the whole space with VMO$_x$ coefficients. We then discuss some subsequent development including elliptic and parabolic equations with coefficients which are allowed to be merely measurable in one or two space directions, weighted $L_p$ estimates with Muckenhoupt ($A_p$) weights, non-local elliptic and parabolic equations, as well as fully nonlinear elliptic and parabolic equations.
In this paper we prove a generalization of Montel's theorem for a class of first order elliptic equations with measurable coefficients involving Hodge-Dirac operators. We then apply this result to sequences of solutions of second order uniformly elliptic equations with measurable coefficients on divergence form and show that this results in a precompactness result for such sequences.
We establish local interior Lipschitz continuity of the solutions of a class of free boundary elliptic problems assuming the coefficients of the equation of Dini mean oscillation in at least one direction. The novelty in this regularity result lies in the fact that it allows discontinuous coefficients in all but one variable.
In this note we study the global regularity in the Morrey spaces for the second derivatives for the strong solutions of non variational elliptic equations.
We investigate the quantitative unique continuation of solutions to higher order elliptic equations with singular coefficients. Quantitative unique continuation described by the vanishing order is a quantitative form of strong unique continuation property. We characterize the vanishing order of solutions for higher order elliptic equations in terms of the norms of coefficient functions in their respective Lebesgue spaces. New versions of quantitative Carleman estimates are established.
In this paper we establish the optimal interior regularity and the $C^{1,γ}$ smoothness of the regular part of the free boundary in the thin obstacle problem for a class of degenerate elliptic equations with variable coefficients.
This is a survey of results mostly relating elliptic equations and systems of arbitrary even order with rough coefficients in Lipschitz graph domains. Asymptotic properties of solutions at a point of a Lipschitz boundary are also discussed.
In this paper, we derive a local Carleman estimate for the complex second order elliptic operator with Lipschitz coefficients having jump discontinuities. Combing the result in [BL] and the arguments in [DcFLVW], we present an elementary method to derive the Carleman estimate under the optimal regularity assumption on the coefficients.
An $L_{p}$-theory of divergence and non-divergence form elliptic and parabolic equations is presented. The main coefficients are supposed to belong to the class $VMO_{x}$, which, in particular, contains all functions independent of $x$. Weak uniqueness of the martingale problem associated with such equations is obtained.
We study Green's matrices for divergence form, second order strongly elliptic systems with bounded measurable coefficients in two dimensional domains. We establish existence, uniqueness, and pointwise estimates of the Green's matrices.
We present a new method for the existence and pointwise estimates of a Green's function of non-divergence form elliptic operator with Dini mean oscillation coefficients. We also present a sharp comparison with the corresponding Green's function for constant coefficients equations.
We extend several well-known tools from the theory of second-order divergence-form elliptic equations to the case of higher-order equations. These tools are the Caccioppoli inequality, Meyers's reverse Holder inequality for gradients, and the fundamental solution. Our construction of the fundamental solution may also be of interest in the theory of second-order operators, as we impose no regularity assumptions on our elliptic operator beyond ellipticity and boundedness of coefficients.
We establish partial regularity for vector-valued solutions to inhomogeneous elliptic systems in divergence form where the coefficients are possibly discontinuous with respect to $x$. More precisely, we assume a VMO-condition with respect to the $x$ and continuity with respect to $u$ and prove Hölder continuity of the solutions outside of singular sets.
We study existence and uniqueness of bounded solutions to a fractional sublinear elliptic equation with a variable coefficient, in the whole space. Existence is investigated in connection to a certain fractional linear equation, whereas the proof of uniqueness relies on uniqueness of solutions to an associated fractional porous medium equation with variable density.
We consider second order uniformly elliptic operators of divergence form in $\R^{d+1}$ whose coefficients are independent of one variable. Under the Lipschitz condition on the coefficients we characterize the domain of the Poisson operators and the Dirichlet-Neumann maps in the Sobolev space $H^s(\R^d)$ for each $s\in [0,1]$. Moreover, we also show a factorization formula for the elliptic operator in terms of the Poisson operator.
We construct of a family of fundamental solutions for elliptic partial differential operators with real constant coefficients. The elements of such a family are expressed by means of jointly real analytic functions of the coefficients of the operators and of the spatial variable. We show regularity properties in the frame of Schauder spaces for the corresponding single layer potentials.
The solvability in $W^{2}_{p}(\bR^{d})$ spaces is proved for second-order elliptic equations with coefficients which are measurable in one direction and VMO in the orthogonal directions in each small ball with the direction depending on the ball. This generalizes to a very large extent the case of equations with continuous or VMO coefficients.
Recently found all the fundamental solutions of a multidimensional singular elliptic equation are expressed in terms of the well-known Lauricella hypergeometric function in many variables. In this paper, we find a unique solution of the Dirichlet problem for an elliptic equation with several singular coefficients in explicit form. When finding a solution, we use decomposition formulas and some adjacent relations for the Lauricella hypergeometric function in many variables.
$W^{1, p}$ estimate for the solutions of elliptic equations whose coefficient matrix can have large jump along the boundary of subdomains is obtained. The principal coefficients are supposed to be in the John-Nirenberg space with small BMO seminorms. The domain and subdomains are Reifenberg flat domains and moreover, it has been shown that the estimates are uniform with respect to the distance between the subdomains.
We establish partial regularity result for vector-valued solutions to second order elliptic system in divergence form. The coefficients safisfies Dini condition respect to $(x,u)$ with growth order lager than 2. We prove $C^1$-regularity of the solutions outside of singular set.
In this short note, we investigate simultaneous recovery inverse problems for semilinear elliptic equations with partial data. The main technique is based on higher order linearization and monotonicity approaches. With these methods at hand, we can determine the diffusion, cavity and coefficients simultaneously by knowing the corresponding localized Dirichlet-Neumann operators.
Recently found all the fundamental solutions of a multidimensional singular elliptic equation are expressed in terms of the well-known Lauricella hypergeometric function in many variables. In this paper, we find a unique solution of the generalized Holmgren problem for an elliptic equation with several singular coefficients in explicit form. When finding a solution, we use decomposition formulas and some adjacent relations for the Lauricella hypergeometric function in many variables.
We consider linear elliptic and parabolic equations with measurable coefficients and prove two types of $L_{p}$-estimates for their solutions, which were recently used in the theory of fully nonlinear elliptic and parabolic second order equations in \cite{DKL}. The first type is an estimate of the $γ$th norm of the second-order derivatives, where $γ\in(0,1)$, and the second type deals with estimates of the resolvent operators in $L_{p}$ when the first-order coefficients are summable to an appropriate power.
We discuss the problem how "bad" may be lower-order coefficients in elliptic and parabolic second order equations to ensure some qualitative properties of solution such as strong maximum principle, Harnack's inequality, Liouville's theorem. The answers are given in terms of the Lebesgue spaces and the Morrey spaces.
This paper is devoted to discussing the existence and uniqueness of weak solutions to time-fractional elliptic equations having time-dependent variable coefficients. To obtain the main result, our strategy is to combine the Galerkin method, a basic inequality for the fractional derivative of convex Lyapunov candidate functions, the Yoshida approximation sequence and the weak compactness argument.
In this paper we prove a local Carleman estimate for second order elliptic equations with a general anisotropic Lipschitz coefficients having a jump at an interface. Our approach does not rely on the techniques of microlocal analysis. We make use of the elementary method so that we are able to impose almost optimal assumptions on the coefficients and, consequently, the interface.
In this paper we study the local behavior of a solution to second order elliptic operators with sharp singular coefficients in lower order terms. One of the main results is the bound on the vanishing order of the solution, which is a quantitative estimate of the strong unique continuation property. Our proof relies on Carleman estimates with carefully chosen phases. A key strategy in the proof is to derive doubling inequalities via three-sphere inequalities. Our method can also be applied to certain elliptic systems with similar singular coefficients.
We investigate existence and uniqueness of solutions to a class of fractional parabolic equations satisfying prescribed pointwise conditions at infinity (in space), which can be time- dependent. Moreover, we study the asymptotic behaviour of such solutions. We also consider solutions of elliptic equations satisfying appropriate conditions at infinity.
