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 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.
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 consider a semilinear elliptic equation in a bounded domain with zero boundary conditions. The nonlinearity is discontinuous and monotone, but it is not a Carathéodory's function. The existence theorem has been proved.
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 consider both divergence and non-divergence parabolic equations on a half space in weighted Sobolev spaces. All the leading coefficients are assumed to be only measurable in the time and one spatial variable except one coefficient, which is assumed to be only measurable either in the time or the spatial variable. As functions of the other variables the coefficients have small bounded mean oscillation (BMO) semi-norms. The lower-order coefficients are allowed to blow up near the boundary with a certain optimal growth condition. As a corollary, we also obtain the corresponding results for ell…
We show that for any uniformly elliptic fully nonlinear second-order equation with bounded measurable "coefficients" and bounded "free" term one can find an approximating equation which has a unique continuous and having the second derivatives locally bounded solution in a given smooth domain with smooth boundary data. The approximating equation is constructed in such a way that it modifies the original one only for large values of the unknown function and its derivatives.
The present paper establishes a certain duality between the Dirichlet and Regularity problems for elliptic operators with $t$-independent complex bounded measurable coefficients ($t$ being the transversal direction to the boundary). To be precise, we show that the Dirichlet boundary value problem is solvable in $L^{p'}$, subject to the square function and non-tangential maximal function estimates, if and only if the corresponding Regularity problem is solvable in $L^p$. Moreover, the solutions admit layer potential representations. In particular, we prove that for any elliptic operator with $t…
We study the integro-differential operators $L$ with kernels $K(y) = a(y) J(y)$, where $J(y)dy$ is a Lévy measure on $\bR^d$ (i.e. $\int_{\bR^d}(1\wedge |y|^2)J(y)dy<\infty$) and $a(y)$ is an only measurable function with positive lower and upper bounds. Under few additional conditions on $J(y)$, we prove the unique solvability of the equation $Lu-λu=f$ in $L_p$-spaces and present some $L_p$-estimates of the solutions.
We study the $3 \times 3$ elliptic systems $\nabla \times (a(x) \nabla\times u)-\nabla (b(x) \nabla \cdot u)=f$, where the coefficients $a(x)$ and $b(x)$ are positive scalar functions that are measurable and bounded away from zero and infinity. We prove that weak solutions of the above system are Hölder continuous under some minimal conditions on the inhomogeneous term $f$. We also present some applications and discuss several related topics including estimates of the Green's functions and the heat kernels of the above systems.
We study Neumann functions for divergence form, second order elliptic systems with bounded measurable coefficients in a bounded Lipschitz domain or a Lipschitz graph domain. We establish existence, uniqueness, and various estimates for the Neumann functions under the assumption that weak solutions of the system enjoy interior Hölder continuity. Also, we establish global pointwise bounds for the Neumann functions under the assumption that weak solutions of the system satisfy a certain natural local boundedness estimate. Moreover, we prove that such a local boundedness estimate for weak solution…
This paper introduces a notion of regularity (or irregularity) of the point at infinity for the unbounded open subset of $\rr^{N}$ concerning second order uniformly elliptic equations with bounded and measurable coefficients, according as whether the A-harmonic measure of the point at infinity is zero (or positive). A necessary and sufficient condition for the existence of a unique bounded solution to the Dirichlet problem in an arbitrary open set of $\rr^{N}, N\ge 3$ is established in terms of the Wiener test for the regularity of the point at infinity. It coincides with the Wiener test for t…
We obtain a global weighted $L^p$ estimate for the gradient of the weak solutions to divergence form elliptic equations with measurable coefficients in a nonsmooth bounded domain. The coefficients are assumed to be merely measurable in one variable and to have small BMO semi-norms in the remaining variables, while the boundary of the domain is supposed to be Reifenberg flat, which goes beyond the category of domains with Lipschitz continuous boundaries. As consequence of the main result, we derive global gradient estimate for the weak solution in the framework of the Morrey spaces which implie…
This paper introduces the notion of $log$-regularity (or $log$-irregularity) of the boundary point $ζ$ (possibly $ζ=\infty$) of the arbitrary open subset $Ω$ of the Greenian deleted neigborhood of $ζ$ in $R^2$ concerning second order uniformly elliptic equations with bounded and measurable coefficients, according as whether the $log$-harmonic measure of $ζ$ is null (or positive). A necessary and sufficient condition for the removability of the logarithmic singularity, that is to say for the existence of a unique solution to the Dirichlet problem in $Ω$ in a class $O(\log |\cdot - ζ|)$ is estab…
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.
A linear different operator L is called weakly hypoelliptic if any local solution u of Lu=0 is smooth. We allow for systems, that is, the coefficients may be matrices, not necessarily of square size. This is a huge class of important operators which cover all elliptic, overdetermined elliptic, subelliptic and parabolic equations. We extend several classical theorems from complex analysis to solutions of any weakly hypoelliptic equation: the Montel theorem providing convergent subsequences, the Vitali theorem ensuring convergence of a given sequence and Riemann's first removable singularity the…
The solvability in Sobolev spaces is proved for divergence form complex-valued higher order parabolic systems in the whole space, on a half space, and on a Reifenberg flat domain. The leading coefficients are assumed to be merely measurable in one spacial direction and have small mean oscillations in the orthogonal directions on each small cylinder. The directions in which the coefficients are only measurable vary depending on each cylinder. The corresponding elliptic problem is also considered.
We consider second-order elliptic equations in a half space with leading coefficients measurable in a tangential direction. We prove the $W^2_p$-estimate and solvability for the Dirichlet problem when $p\in (1,2]$, and for the Neumann problem when $p\in [2,\infty)$. We then extend these results to equations with more general coefficients, which are measurable in a tangential direction and have small mean oscillations in the other directions. As an application, we obtain the $W^2_p$-solvability of elliptic equations in convex wedge domains or in convex polygonal domains with discontinuous coeff…
The solvability in Sobolev spaces $W^{1,2}_p$ is proved for nondivergence form second order parabolic equations for $p>2$ close to 2. The leading coefficients are assumed to be measurable in the time variable and two coordinates of space variables, and almost VMO (vanishing mean oscillation) with respect to the other coordinates. This implies the $W^{2}_p$-solvability for the same $p$ of nondivergence form elliptic equations with leading coefficients measurable in two coordinates and VMO in the others. Under slightly different assumptions, we also obtain the solvability results when $p=2$.
We consider semilinear elliptic second-order partial differential inequalities of the form Lu +|u|q-1u < and = Lv +|v|q-1v (*) in the whole space Rn, where n > and = 2, q > 0 and L is a linear elliptic second-order partial differential operator in divergence form. We assume that the coefficients of the operator L are defined, measurable and locally bounded in Rn, and that the quadratic form associated with the operator L is symmetric and non-negative definite. We obtain a Liouville comparison principle in terms of a capacity associated with the operator L for solutions of (*), which are define…
The aim of this article is to deepen the understanding of the derivation of $\mathrm{L}^p$-estimates of non-local operators. We review the $\mathrm{L}^p$-extrapolation theorem of Shen which builds on a real variable argument of Caffarelli and Peral and adapt this theorem to account for non-local weak reverse Hölder estimates. These non-local weak reverse Hölder estimates appear for example in the investigation of non-local elliptic integrodifferential operators. This originates from the fact that here only a non-local Caccioppoli inequality is valid, see Kuusi, Mingione, and Sire. As an applic…
This paper studies the Sobolev regularity of weak solution of degenerate elliptic equations in divergence form $\text{div}[\mathbf{A}(X) \nabla u] = \text{div}[\mathbf{F}(X)]$, where $X = (x,y) \in \mathbb{R}^{n} \times \mathbb{R}$ . The coefficient matrix $\mathbf{A}(X)$ is a symmetric, measurable $(n+1) \times (n+1)$ matrix, and it could be degenerate or singular in the one dimensional $y$-variable as a weight function in the Muckenhoupt class $A_2$ of weights. Our results give weighted Sobolev regularity estimates of Calderón-Zygmund type for weak solutions of this class of singular, degene…
We study both divergence and non-divergence form parabolic and elliptic equations in the half space $\{x_d>0\}$ whose coefficients are the product of $x_d^α$ and uniformly nondegenerate bounded measurable matrix-valued functions, where $α\in (-1, \infty)$. As such, the coefficients are singular or degenerate near the boundary of the half space. For equations with the conormal or Neumann boundary condition, we prove the existence, uniqueness, and regularity of solutions in weighted Sobolev spaces and mixed-norm weighted Sobolev spaces when the coefficients are only measurable in the $x_d$ direc…
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 the existence problem for positive solutions $u \in L^{r}(\mathbb{R}^{n})$, $0<r<\infty$, to the quasilinear elliptic equation \[ -Δ_{p} u = σu^{q} \quad \text{in} \;\; \mathbb{R}^n \] in the sub-natural growth case $0<q< p-1$, where $Δ_{p}u = \text{div}( |\nabla u|^{p-2} \nabla u )$ is the $p$-Laplacian with $1<p<\infty$, and $σ$ is a nonnegative measurable function (or measure) on $\mathbb{R}^n$. Our techniques rely on a study of general integral equations involving nonlinear potentials and related weighted norm inequalities. They are applicable to more general quasilinear elliptic …
We prove a sharp Hölder estimate for solutions of linear two-dimensional, divergence form elliptic equations with measurable coefficients, such that the matrix of the coefficients is symmetric and has {\em unit determinant}. Our result extends some previous work by Piccinini and Spagnolo. The proof relies on a sharp Wirtinger type inequality.
We study an elliptic equation with measurable coefficients arising from photo-acoustic imaging in inhomogeneous media. We establish Holder continuity of weak solutions and obtain pointwise bounds for Green's functions subject to Dirichlet or Neumann condition.
We obtain a local estimate for the gradient of solutions to a second-order elliptic equation in divergence form with bounded measurable coefficients that are square-Dini continuous at the single point x=0. In particular, we treat the case of solutions that are not Lipschitz continuous at x=0. We show that our estimate is sharp.
Consider positive solutions to second order elliptic equations with measurable coefficients in a bounded domain, which vanish on a portion of the boundary. We give simple necessary and sufficient geometric conditions on the domain, which guarantee the Hopf-Oleinik type estimates and the boundary Lipschitz estimates for solutions. These conditions are sharp even for harmonic functions.
We obtain an estimate for the Hölder continuity exponent for weak solutions to the following elliptic equation in divergence form: \[ \mathrm{div}(A(x)\nabla u)=0 \qquad\mathrm{in\}Ω, \] where $Ω$ is a bounded open subset of $\R^2$ and, for every $x\inΩ$, $A(x)$ is a matrix with bounded measurable coefficients. Such an estimate "interpolates" between the well-known estimate of Piccinini and Spagnolo in the isotropic case $A(x)=a(x)I$, where $a$ is a bounded measurable function, and our previous result in the unit determinant case $\det A(x)\equiv1$. Furthermore, we show that our estimate is sh…
We study boundary blow-up solutions of semilinear elliptic equations $Lu=u_+^p$ with $p>1$, or $Lu=e^{au}$ with $a>0$, where $L$ is a second order elliptic operator with measurable coefficients. Several uniqueness theorems and an existence theorem are obtained.
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.
Under various conditions, we establish Schauder estimates for both divergence and non-divergence form second-order elliptic and parabolic equations involving Hölder semi-norms not with respect to all, but only with respect to some of the independent variables. A novelty of our results is that the coefficients are allowed to be merely measurable with respect to the other independent variables.
In this article, we will consider second order uniformly elliptic operators of divergence form defined on R^n with measurable coefficients. Mainly, we will give estimates on the dimension of space of solutions that grow at most polynomially of degree d. More precisely, in terms of a rectangular coordinate system {x_1,...,x_n}, a second order uniformly elliptic operator of divergence form, L, acting on a function f in H^1_loc(R^n) is given by Lf = sum_{ij} d/dx_i (a^{ij}(x) df/dx_j) where (a^{ij}(x)) is an n x n symmetric matrix satisfying the ellipticity bounds λI <= (a^{ij}) <= Lambda I for s…
In this paper, we establish existence, uniqueness, and scale-invariant estimates for fundamental solutions of non-homogeneous second order elliptic systems with bounded measurable coefficients in $\mathbb{R}^n$ and for the corresponding Green functions in arbitrary open sets. We impose certain non-homogeneous versions of de Giorgi-Nash-Moser bounds on the weak solutions and investigate in detail the assumptions on the lower order terms sufficient to guarantee such conditions.
We study the relationship between the solvability of the $L^p$ Dirichlet problem $(D)_p$ and that of the $L^q$ regularity problem $(R)_q$ for second order elliptic equations with bounded measurable coefficients. It is known that the solvability of $(R)_p$ implies that of $(D)_{p^\prime}$. In this note we show that if $(D)_{p^\prime}$ is solvable, then either $(R)_p$ is solvable or $(R)_q$ is not solvable for any $1<q<\infty$.
For a linear, strictly elliptic second order differential operator in divergence form with bounded, measurable coefficients on a Lipschitz domain $Ω$ we show that solutions of the corresponding elliptic problem with Robin and thus in particular with Neumann boundary conditions are Hoelder continuous for sufficiently $L^p$-regular right-hand sides. From this we deduce that the parabolic problem with Robin or Wentzell-Robin boundary conditions are well-posed on $\mathrm{C}(\barΩ)$.
In this paper, we study the existence and multiplicity results of nontrivial positive solutions to a quasilinear elliptic equation in $\RN$, when $N\geq2$, as \begin{equation} \Lp u+u^{p-1}=λ\hspace{0.2mm}k(x)u^{r-1}-h(x)u^{q-1}.\nonumber \end{equation} Here, $h(x),k(x)>0$ are Lebesgue measurable functions, $1<p<q<\infty$, $p<r<\min\{p^*,q\}$ if $p<N$ while $p<r<q$ if $p\geq N$, and $λ>0$ is a parameter.
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.
We study the existence and nonexistence of positive singular solutions to second-order non-divergence type elliptic inequalities with measurable coefficients. We prove the existence of a critical value $p^*$ that separates the existence region from non-existence. In the critical case $p=p^*$ we show that the existence of a singular solution depends on the rate at which the coefficients stabilize at zero and we provide some optimal conditions in this setting.
In the whole space $R^d$ ($d\ge 2$), we study homogenization of a divergence-form matrix elliptic operator $L_\varepsilon$ of an arbitrary even order larger than 2 with measurable $\varepsilon$-periodic coefficients, where $\varepsilon$ is a small parameter. We constuct an approximation for the resolvent of $L_\varepsilon$ with the remainder term of order $\varepsilon^2$ in the operator $L^2$-norm. We impose no regularity conditions on the operator beyond ellipticity and boundedness of coefficients. We use two scale expansions with correctors regularized by the Steklov smoothing.
In this article we deal with different forms of the unique continuation property for second order elliptic equations with nonlinear potentials of sublinear growth. Under suitable regularity assumptions, we prove the weak and the strong unique continuation property. Moreover, we also discuss the unique continuation property from measurable sets, which shows that nodal domains to these equations must have vanishing Lebesgue measure. Our methods rely on suitable Carleman estimates, for which we include the sublinear potential into the main part of the operator.
We deal with the existence of quantitative estimates for solutions of mixed problems to an elliptic second order equation in divergence form with discontinuous coefficient. Our concern is to estimate the solutions with explicit constants, for domains in $\mathbb{R}^n$ ($n\geq 2$) of class $C^{0,1}$. The existence of $L^\infty$ and $W^{1,q}$-estimates is assured for $q=2$ and any $q<n/(n-1)$ (depending on the data), whenever the coefficient is only measurable and bounded. The proof method of the quantitative $L^\infty$-estimates is based on the DeGiorgi technique developed by Stampacchia. By us…
We prove the unique solvability in weighted Sobolev spaces of non-divergence form elliptic and parabolic equations on a half space with the homogeneous Neumann boundary condition. All the leading coefficients are assumed to be only measurable in the time variable and have small mean oscillations in the spatial variables. Our results can be applied to Neumann boundary value problems for {\em stochastic} partial differential equations with BMO$_x$ coefficients.
We prove $L_p$ estimates of solutions to a conormal derivative problem for divergence form complex-valued higher-order elliptic systems on a half space and on a Reifenberg flat domain. The leading coefficients are assumed to be merely measurable in one direction and have small mean oscillations in the orthogonal directions on each small ball. Our results are new even in the second-order case. The corresponding results for the Dirichlet problem were obtained recently in [15].
We extend an inequality for harmonic functions, obtained in previous research by the authors, to the case of solutions of uniformly elliptic equations in divergence form, with merely measurable coefficients. The inequality for harmonic functions turned out to be a crucial ingredient in the study of the stability of the radial symmetry for Alexandrov's Soap Bubble Theorem and Serrin's problem. The proof of our inequality is based on a mean value property for elliptic operators by L. Caffarelli, proved in full detail by I. Blank and Z. Hao.
We examine $L^p$-viscosity solutions to fully nonlinear elliptic equations with bounded-measurable ingredients. By considering $p_0<p<d$, we focus on gradient-regularity estimates stemming from nonlinear potentials. We find conditions for local Lipschitz-continuity of the solutions and continuity of the gradient. We briefly survey recent breakthroughs in regularity theory arising from (nonlinear) potential estimates. Our findings follow from -- and are inspired by -- fundamental facts in the theory of $L^p$-viscosity solutions, and results in the work of Panagiota Daskalopoulos, Tuomo Kuusi an…
We develop a new real-variable method for weighted $L^p$ estimates. The method is applied to the study of weighted $W^{1, 2}$ estimates in Lipschitz domains for weak solutions of second-order elliptic systems in divergence form with bounded measurable coefficients. It produces a necessary and sufficient condition, which depends on the weight function, for the weighted $W^{1,2}$ estimate to hold in a fixed Lipschitz domain with a given weight. Using this condition, for elliptic systems in Lipschitz domains with rapidly oscillating, periodic and VMO coefficients, we reduce the problem of weighte…
We show that the following generalized version of Korn's second inequality with nonconstant measurable matrix valued coefficients P ||DuP+(DuP)^T||_q+||u||_q >= c ||Du||_q for u in W_0^{1,q}(Ω;R^3), 1<q<{\infty} is in general false, even if P is in SO(3), while the Legendre-Hadamard condition and ellipticity on C^n for the quadratic form |Du P+(DuP)^T|^2 is satisfied. Thus Garding's inequality may be violated for formally positive quadratic forms.
We prove local boundedness, Harnack's inequality and local regularity for weak solutions of quasilinear degenerate elliptic equations in divergence form with Rough coefficients. Degeneracy is encoded by a non-negative, symmetric, measurable matrix valued function Q(x) and two suitable non-negative weight functions. We setup an axiomatic approach in terms of suitable geometric conditions and local Sobolev-Poincaré inequalities. Data integrability is close to L1 and is exploited in terms of a suitable Stummel-Kato class that in some cases is necessary for local regularity.
In the whole space $R^d$, $d\ge 2$, we study homogenization of a divergence form elliptic operator $A_\varepsilon$ of order $2m\ge 4$ with measurable $\varepsilon$-periodic coefficients, where $\varepsilon$ is a small parameter. For the resolvent $(A_\varepsilon+1)^{-1}$, we construct an approximation with the remainder term of order $\varepsilon^2$ in the operator $(L^2{\to}H^m)$-norm, using the resolvent of the homogenized operator, solutions of several auxiliary periodic problems on the unit cube, and smoothing operators. The homogenized operator here differs from the one commonly employed …
For any fixed $p>2$, a necessary and sufficient condition is obtained for the boundedness of the Riesz transforms associated with second order elliptic operators with real, symmetric, bounded measurable coefficients.
We prove a Harnack inequality for distributional solutions to a type of degenerate elliptic PDEs in $N$ dimensions. The differential operators in question are related to the Kolmogorov operator, made up of the Laplacian in the last $N-1$ variables, a first-order term corresponding to a shear flow in the direction of the first variable, and a bounded measurable potential term. The first-order coefficient is a smooth function of the last $N-1$ variables and its derivatives up to certain order do not vanish simultaneously at any point, making the operators in question hypoelliptic.
We prove the solvability in Sobolev spaces for both divergence and non-divergence form higher order parabolic and elliptic systems in the whole space, on a half space, and on a bounded domain. The leading coefficients are assumed to be merely measurable in the time variable and have small mean oscillations with respect to the spatial variables in small balls or cylinders. For the proof, we develop a set of new techniques to produce mean oscillation estimates for systems on a half space.
