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 steps. In the first one we considered the case in which the desired Carleson measure condition on the coefficients holds with "sufficiently small constant", using a novel application of techniques developed in geometric measure theory. In the second step we establish the final result, that is, the "large constant case". The key elements are a powerful extrapolation argument, which provides a general pathway to self-improve scale-invariant small constant estimates, and a new mechanism to transfer quantitative absolute continuity of elliptic measure between a domain and its subdomains.
Let $Ω\subset\mathbb R^{n+1}$, $n\geq1$, be a corkscrew domain with Ahlfors-David regular boundary. In this paper we prove that $\partialΩ$ is uniformly $n$-rectifiable if every bounded harmonic function on $Ω$ is $\varepsilon$-approximable or if every bounded harmonic function on $Ω$ satisfies a suitable square-function Carleson measure estimate. In particular, this applies to the case when $Ω=\mathbb R^{n+1}\setminus E$ and $E$ is Ahlfors-David regular. Our results solve a conjecture posed by Hofmann, Martell, and Mayboroda in a recent work where they proved the converse statements. Here we …
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…
Let $E\subset \mathbb{R}^{n+1}$, $n\ge 2$, be a uniformly rectifiable set of dimension $n$. Then bounded harmonic functions in $Ω:= \mathbb{R}^{n+1}\setminus E$ satisfy Carleson measure estimates, and are "$\varepsilon$-approximable". Our results may be viewed as generalized versions of the classical F. and M. Riesz theorem, since the estimates that we prove are equivalent, in more topologically friendly settings, to quantitative mutual absolute continuity of harmonic measure, and surface measure.
We prove that if $μ$ is a d-dimensional Ahlfors-David regular measure in $\R^{d+1}$, then the boundedness of the $d$-dimensional Riesz transform in $L^2(μ)$ implies that the non-BAUP David-Semmes cells form a Carleson family. Combined with earlier results of David and Semmes, this yields the uniform rectifiability of $μ$.
We construct extensions of Varopolous type for functions $f \in \text{BMO}(E)$, for any uniformly rectifiable set $E$ of codimension one. More precisely, let $Ω\subset \mathbb{R}^{n+1}$ be an open set satisfying the corkscrew condition, with an $n$-dimensional uniformly rectifiable boundary $\partial Ω$, and let $σ:= \mathcal{H}^n\lfloor_{\partial Ω}$ denote the surface measure on $\partial Ω$. We show that if $f \in \text{BMO}(\partial Ω,dσ)$ with compact support on $\partial Ω$, then there exists a smooth function $V$ in $Ω$ such that $|\nabla V(Y)| \, dY$ is a Carleson measure with Carleson…
Let $E\subset \mathbb{R}^{n+1}$, $n\ge 2$, be a closed, Ahlfors-David regular set of dimension $n$ satisfying the "Riesz Transform bound" $$\sup_{\varepsilon>0}\int_E\left|\int_{\{y\in E:|x-y|>\varepsilon\}}\frac{x-y}{|x-y|^{n+1}} f(y) dH^n(y)\right|^2 dH^n(x) \leq C \int_E|f|^2 dH^n .$$ Assume further that $E$ is the boundary of a domain $Ω\subset \mathbb{R}^{n+1}$ satisfying the Harnack Chain condition plus an interior (but not exterior) Corkscrew condition. Then $E$ is uniformly rectifiable.
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…
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 establish the rectifiability of measures satisfying a linear PDE constraint. The obtained rectifiability dimensions are optimal for many usual PDE operators, including all first-order systems and all second-order scalar operators. In particular, our general theorem provides a new proof of the rectifiability results for functions of bounded variations (BV) and functions of bounded deformation (BD). For divergence-free tensors we obtain refinements and new proofs of several known results on the rectifiability of varifolds and defect measures.
In this paper we present in concise form recent results, with illustrative proofs, on solvability of the $L^p$ Dirichlet, Regularity and Neumann problems for scalar elliptic equations on Lipschitz domains with coefficients satisfying a variety of Carleson conditions. More precisely, with $L=\mbox{div}(A\nabla)$, we assume the matrix $A$ is elliptic and satisfies a natural Carleson condition either in the form that ($|\nabla A(X)|\lesssim \mbox{dist}(X,\partialΩ)^{-1}$ and $|\nabla A|(X)^2\mbox{dist}(X,\partialΩ)\,dX$) or $\mbox{dist}(X,\partialΩ)^{-1}\left(\mbox{osc}_{B(X,δ(X)/2)}A\right)^2\,d…
In this note we give an example of measure satisfying the box condition on certain sub-bi-trees (see below) but not satisfying Carleson condition on those sub-bi-trees. This can be considered as a certain counterexample for two weight bi-parameter embedding of Carleson type. Our type of counterexample is impossible for a simple tree. In the case of a simple tree, the box condition, Carleson condition and two weight embedding are all equivalent. In the last section we show that bi-parameter box condition implies the bi-parameter capacitary estimate for dyadic rectangles.
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, …
A Characterization of Solvability of the Parabolic $L^p$ Dirichlet Problem on Lipschitz Graph Domains Via Carleson Measure Estimates of Bounded Solutions
We consider divergence form elliptic equations $Lu:=\nabla\cdot(A\nabla u)=0$ in the half space $\mathbb{R}^{n+1}_+ :=\{(x,t)\in \mathbb{R}^n\times(0,\infty)\}$, whose coefficient matrix $A$ is complex elliptic, bounded and measurable. In addition, we suppose that $A$ satisfies some additional regularity in the direction transverse to the boundary, namely that the discrepancy $A(x,t) -A(x,0)$ satisfies a Carleson measure condition of Fefferman-Kenig-Pipher type, with small Carleson norm. Under these conditions, we establish a full range of boundedness results for double and single layer potent…
We establish $L^p$, $2\le p\le\infty$ solvability of the Dirichlet boundary value problem for a parabolic equation $u_t-\mbox{div}(A\nabla u)=0$ on time-varying domains with coefficient matrix $A=(a_{ij})$ that satisfy a small Carleson condition. The result is motivated by similar results for the elliptic equation $\mbox{div}(A\nabla u)=0$ that were established previously.
In this paper, we continue the study of a class of second order elliptic operators of the form $\mathcal L=\mbox{div}(A\nabla\cdot)$ in a domain above a Lipschitz graph in $\mathbb R^n,$ where the coefficients of the matrix $A$ satisfy a Carleson measure condition, expressed as a condition on the oscillation on Whitney balls. For this class of operators, it is known (since 2001) that the $L^q$ Dirichlet problem is solvable for some $1 < q < \infty$. Moreover, further studies completely resolved the range of $L^q$ solvability of the Dirichlet, Regularity, Neumann problems in Lipschitz domains, …
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 a Lipschitz domain in $\mathbb R^n$ $n\geq 2,$ and $L=\mbox{div} (A\nabla\cdot)$ be a second order elliptic operator in divergence form. We establish solvability of the Dirichlet regularity problem with boundary data in $H^{1,p}(\partialΩ)$ and of the Neumann problem with $L^p(\partialΩ)$ data for the operator $L$ on Lipschitz domains with small Lipschitz constant. We allow the coefficients of the operator $L$ to be rough obeying a certain Carleson condition with small norm. These results complete the results of [5] where $L^p(\partialΩ)$ Dirichlet problem was considered under the s…
Suppose that $Ω\subset \mathbb{R}^{n+1}$, $n \ge 2$, is an open set satisfying the corkscrew condition with an $n$-dimensional ADR boundary, $\partial Ω$. In this note, we show that if harmonic functions are $\varepsilon$-approximable in $L^p$ for any $p > n/(n-1)$, then $\partial Ω$ is uniformly rectifiable. Combining our results with those in [HT] (Hofmann-Tapiola) gives us a new characterization of uniform rectifiability which complements the recent results in [HMM] (Hofmann-Martell-Mayboroda), [GMT] (Garnett-Mourgoglou-Tolsa) and [AGMT] (Azzam-Garnett-Mourgoglou-Tolsa).
We generalize to the setting of 1-sided chord-arc domains, that is, to domains satisfying the interior Corkscrew and Harnack Chain conditions (these are respectively scale-invariant/quantitative versions of the openness and path-connectedness) and which have an Ahlfors regular boundary, a result of Kenig-Kirchheim-Pipher-Toro, in which Carleson measure estimates for bounded solutions of the equation $Lu=-{\rm div}(A\nabla u) = 0$ with $A$ being a real (not necessarily symmetric) uniformly elliptic matrix, imply that the corresponding elliptic measure belongs to the Muckenhoupt $A_\infty$ class…
We extend in two directions the notion of perturbations of Carleson type for the Dirichlet problem associated to an elliptic real second-order divergence-form (possibly degenerate, not necessarily symmetric) elliptic operator. First, in addition to the classical perturbations of Carleson type, that we call additive Carleson perturbations, we introduce scalar-multiplicative and antisymmetric Carleson perturbations, which both allow non-trivial differences at the boundary. Second, we consider domains which admit an elliptic PDE in a broad sense: we count as examples the 1-sided NTA (a.k.a. unifo…
We prove a structure theorem for any $n$-rectifiable set $E\subset \mathbb{R}^{n+1}$, $n\ge 1$, satisfying a weak version of the lower ADR condition, and having locally finite $H^n$ ($n$-dimensional Hausdorff) measure. Namely, that $H^n$-almost all of $E$ can be covered by a countable union of boundaries of bounded Lipschitz domains contained in $\mathbb{R}^{n+1}\setminus E$. As a consequence, for harmonic measure in the complement of such a set $E$, we establish a non-degeneracy condition which amounts to saying that $H^n|_E$ is "absolutely continuous" with respect to harmonic measure in the …
We prove that for any homogeneous, second order, constant complex coefficient elliptic system $L$, the Dirichlet problem in $\mathbb{R}^{n}_{+}$ with boundary data in BMO is well-posed in the class of functions $u$ with $dμ_u(x',t):=|\nabla u(x',t)|^2\,t\,dx'dt$ being a Carleson measure. We establish a Fatou type theorem guaranteeing the existence of the pointwise nontangential boundary trace for smooth null-solutions $u$ of such systems satisfying the said Carleson measure condition. These imply that BMO can be characterized as the collection of nontangential pointwise traces of smooth null-s…
Let $Ω\subset\mathbb{R}^{n+1}$, $n\ge 2$, be a 1-sided non-tangentially accessible domain (aka uniform domain), i.e., a set which satisfies the interior Corkscrew and Harnack chain conditions, respectively scale-invariant/quantitative versions of openness and path-connectedness. Assume that $Ω$ satisfies the so-called capacity density condition. Let $L_0u=-\mathrm{div}(A_0\nabla u)$, $Lu=-\mathrm{div}(A\nabla u)$ be two real (non-necessarily symmetric) uniformly elliptic operators, and write $ω_{L_0}$, $ω_L$ for the associated elliptic measures. The goal of this program is to find sufficient c…
Suppose that $Ω\subset\mathbb R^{n+1}$, $n\geq1$, is a uniform domain with $n$-Ahlfors regular boundary and $L$ is a (not necessarily symmetric) divergence form elliptic, real, bounded operator in $Ω$. We show that the corresponding elliptic measure $ω_L$ is quantitatively absolutely continuous with respect to surface measure of $\partialΩ$ in the sense that $ω_L \in A_\infty(σ)$ if and only if any bounded solution $u$ to $Lu = 0$ in $Ω$ is $\varepsilon$-approximable for any $\varepsilon \in (0,1)$. By $\varepsilon$-approximability of $u$ we mean that there exists a function $Φ= Φ^\varepsilon$…
We investigate various boundary decay estimates for $p(\cdot)$-harmonic functions. For domains in $\mathbb{R}^n, n\geq 2$ satisfying the ball condition ($C^{1,1}$-domains) we show the boundary Harnack inequality for $p(\cdot)$-harmonic functions under the assumption that the variable exponent $p$ is a bounded Lipschitz function. The proof involves barrier functions and chaining arguments. Moreover, we prove a Carleson type estimate for $p(\cdot)$-harmonic functions in NTA domains in $\mathbb{R}^n$ and provide lower- and upper- growth estimates and a doubling property for a $p(\cdot)$-harmonic …
In this paper, we consider $L^p$- estimate for a class of oscillatory integral operators satisfying the Carleson-Sjölin conditions with further convex and straight assumptions. As applications, the multiplier problem related to a general class of hypersurfaces with nonvanishing Gaussian curvature, local smoothing estimates for the fractional Schrödinger equation and the sharp resolvent estimates outside of the uniform boundedness range are discussed.
We prove that the $L^{p'}$-solvability of the homogeneous Dirichlet problem for an elliptic operator $L=-\operatorname{div}A\nabla$ with real and merely bounded coefficients is equivalent to the $L^{p'}$-solvability of the Poisson Dirichlet problem $Lw=H-\operatorname{div} F$, which is defined in terms of an $L^{p'}$ estimate on the non-tangential maximal function, assuming that $\operatorname{dist}(\cdot, \partial Ω) H$ and $F$ lie in certain $L^{p'}$-Carleson-type spaces, and that the domain $Ω\subset\mathbb R^{n+1}$, $n\geq2$, satisfies the corkscrew condition and has $n$-Ahlfors regular bo…
Let $b_α^{p}(\mathbb{R}^{1+n}_{+})$ be the space of solutions to the parabolic equation $\partial_{t}u+(-\triangle)^αu=0$ $(α\in(0, 1])$ having finite $L^{p}(\mathbb{R}^{1+n}_{+})$ norm. We characterize nonnegative Radon measures $μ$ on $\mathbb{R}^{1+n}_{+}$ having the property $\|u\|_{L^{q}(\mathbb{R}^{1+n}_{+},μ)}\lesssim \|u\|_{\dot{W}^{1,p}(\mathbb{R}^{1+n}_{+})},$ $1\leq p\leq q<\infty,$ whenever $u(t,x)\in b_α^{p}(\mathbb{R}^{1+n}_{+})\cap \dot{W}^{1.p}(\mathbb{R}^{1+n}_{+}).$ Meanwhile, denoting by $v(t,x)$ the solution of the above equation with Cauchy data $v_{0}(x),$ we characterize…
In the paper arXiv:1708.02289 we have introduced new solvability methods for strongly elliptic second order systems in divergence form on a domains above a Lipschitz graph, satisfying $L^p$-boundary data for $p$ near $2$. The main novel aspect of our result is that it applies to operators with coefficients of limited regularity and applies to operators satisfying a natural Carleson condition that has been first considered in the scalar case. In this paper we extend this result in several directions. We improve the range of solvability of the $L^p$ Dirichlet problem to the interval $2-\varepsil…
We establish a Dahlberg-type perturbation theorem for second order divergence form elliptic operators with complex coefficients. In our previous paper, we showed the following result: If ${\mathcal L}_0=\mbox{div} A^0(x)\nabla+B^0(x)\cdot\nabla$ is a $p$-elliptic operator satisfying certain Carleson condition on $\nabla A$ and $B$ then the $L^p$ Dirichlet problem for the operator ${\mathcal L}_0$ is solvable in the upper half-space ${\mathbb R}^n_+$. In this paper we prove that the $L^p$ solvability is stable under small perturbations of ${\mathcal L}_0$. That is if ${\mathcal L}_1$ is another…
Let $Ω\subset\mathbb{R}^{n+1}$, $n\ge 2$, be a 1-sided non-tangentially accessible domain (aka uniform domain), that is, $Ω$ satisfies the interior Corkscrew and Harnack chain conditions, which are respectively scale-invariant/quantitative versions of openness and path-connectedness. Let us assume also that $Ω$ satisfies the so-called capacity density condition, a quantitative version of the fact that all boundary points are Wiener regular. Consider $L_0 u=-\mathrm{div}(A_0\nabla u)$, $Lu=-\mathrm{div}(A\nabla u)$, two real (non-necessarily symmetric) uniformly elliptic operators in $Ω$, and w…
Questions concerning quantitative and asymptotic properties of the elliptic measure corresponding to a uniformly elliptic divergence form operator have been the focus of recent studies. In this setting we show that the elliptic measure of an operator with coefficients satisfying a vanishing Carleson condition in the upper half space is an asymptotically optimal $A_\infty$ weight. In particular, for such operators the logarithm of the elliptic kernel is in the space of (locally) vanishing mean oscillation. To achieve this, we prove local, quantitative estimates on a quantity (introduced by Feff…
Let $Ω\subset\mathbb{R}^{n+1}$, $n\ge 2$, be a 1-sided chord-arc domain, that is, a domain which satisfies interior Corkscrew and Harnack Chain conditions (these are respectively scale-invariant/quantitative versions of the openness and path-connectedness), and whose boundary $\partialΩ$ is $n$-dimensional Ahlfors regular. Consider $L_0$ and $L$ two real symmetric divergence form elliptic operators and let $ω_{L_0}$, $ω_L$ be the associated elliptic measures. We show that if $ω_{L_0}\in A_\infty(σ)$, where $σ=H^n|_{\partialΩ}$, and $L$ is a perturbation of $L_0$ (in the sense that the discrepa…
Given two elliptic operators L and M in nondivergence form, with coefficients A_L(x), A_M(x) and drift terms b_L(x), b_M(x), respectively, satisfying a Carleson measure disagreement condition in a Lipschitz domain Omega in R^{n+1}, then their harmonic measures are mutually absolutely continuous. As an application of this, a new approximation argument and known results we obtain necessary and sufficient conditions for a single operator L (in divergence or nondivergence form) to have regular harmonic measure with respect to Lebesgue measure. The results are sharp in all cases.
Let $Ω\subset \mathbb{R}^{n+1}$, $n\ge 2$, be a 1-sided non-tangentially accessible domain (i.e., quantitatively open and path-connected) satisfiying the capacity density condition. Let $L_0 u=-\mathrm{div}(A_0 \nabla u)$, $Lu=-\mathrm{div}(A\nabla u)$ be two real uniformly elliptic operators in $Ω$, with $ω_{L_0}, ω_L$ the associated elliptic measures. We establish the equivalence between the following properties: (i) $ω_L \in A_{\infty}(ω_{L_0})$, (ii) $L$ is $L^p(ω_{L_0})$-solvable for some $p\in (1,\infty)$, (iii) bounded null solutions of $L$ satisfy Carleson measure estimates with respec…
We study the properties of harmonic measure in semi-uniform domains. Aikawa and Hirata showed in \cite{AH08} that, for John domains satisfying the capacity density condition (CDC), the doubling property for harmonic measure is equivalent to the domain being semi-uniform. Our first result removes the John condition by showing that any domain satisfying the CDC whose harmonic measure is doubling is semi-uniform. Next, we develop a substitute for some classical estimates on harmonic measure in nontangentially accessible domains that works in semi-uniform domains. We also show that semi-uniform do…
