The Perron method for p-harmonic functions in metric spaces

We use the Perron method to construct and study solutions of the Dirichlet problem for p-harmonic functions in proper metric measure spaces endowed with a doubling Borel measure supporting a weak (1,q)-Poincaré inequality (for some 1?q<p). The upper and lower Perron solutions are constructed for functions defined on the boundary of a bounded domain and it is shown that these solutions are p-harmonic in the domain. It is also shown that Newtonian (Sobolev) functions and continuous functions are resolutive, i.e. that their upper and lower Perron solutions coincide, and that their Perron solutions are invariant under perturbations of the function on a set of capacity zero. We further study the problem of resolutivity and invariance under perturbations for semicontinuous functions. We also characterize removable sets for bounded p-(super)harmonic functions.     

The transmission problem in domains with a corner point for the Laplace operator in weighted Hölder spaces

We prove the existence and uniqueness of a solution to the elliptic transmission problem in nonsmooth domains in the weighted Hölder space. The coercive estimates of the solution are given.     

Schauder estimates for a class of second order elliptic operators on a cube

We consider a class of second order elliptic operators on a d-dimensional cube S_d. We prove that if the coefficients are of class C^k+δ(S_d), with k=0,1 and δ∈(0,1), then the corresponding elliptic problem admits a unique solution u belonging to C^k+2+δ(S_d) and satisfying non-standard boundary conditions involving only second order derivatives.     

Regularity for p-harmonic equations with right-hand side in Orlicz-Zygmund classes

We establish regularity results for solutions of some degenerate elliptic PDEs, with right-hand side in a suitable Orlicz-Zygmund class. The nonnegative function which measures the degree of degeneracy of the ellipticity bounds is assumed to be exponentially integrable. We find that the scale of improved regularity is logarithmic and we indicate its exact dependence on the degree of the degeneracy of the problem.     

p-Harmonic functions with boundary data having jump discontinuities and Baernstein's problem

For p-harmonic functions on unweighted R², with 1<p<∞, we show that if the boundary values f has a jump at an (asymptotic) corner point z₀, then the Perron solution Pf is asymptotically a+barg(z−z₀)+o(|z−z₀|). We use this to obtain a positive answer to Baernstein's problem on the equality of the p-harmonic measure of a union G of open arcs on the boundary of the unit disc, and the p-harmonic measure of . We also obtain various invariance results for functions with jumps and perturbations on small sets. For p>2 these results are new also for continuous functions. Finally we look at generalizations to Rn and metric spaces.     

Uniform Hölder estimate for singularly perturbed parabolic systems of Bose-Einstein condensates and competing species

We prove the uniform Hölder continuity of solutions for two classes of singularly perturbed parabolic systems. These systems arise in Bose-Einstein condensates and in competing models in population dynamics. The proof relies upon the blow up technique and the monotonicity formulas by Almgren and Alt, Caffarelli, and Friedman.     

Isocapacity estimates for Hessian operators

Through a new powerful potential-theoretic analysis, this paper is devoted to discovering the geometrically equivalent isocapacity forms of Chou–Wang's Sobolev type inequality and Tian–Wang's Moser–Trudinger type inequality for the fully nonlinear 1≤k≤n/2$1\le k\le n/2$ Hessian operators.     

A Fatou theorem for α-harmonic functions

We study functions which are harmonic in the upper half space with respect to (−Δ)^α/2, 0<α<2. We prove a Fatou theorem when the boundary function is L^p-Hölder continuous of order β and βp>1. We give examples to show this condition is sharp.     

Boundary estimates for solutions to operators of p-Laplace type with lower order terms

In this paper we study the boundary behavior of solutions to equations of the form

∇⋅A(x,∇u)+B(x,∇u)=0,     

Schauder estimates for a degenerate second order elliptic operator on a cube

In the present article we are concerned with a class of degenerate second order differential operators LA,b defined on the cube d[0,1], with d?1. Under suitable assumptions on the coefficients A and b (among them the assumption of their Hölder regularity) we show that the operator LA,b defined on C²(d[0,1]) is closable and its closure is m-dissipative. In particular, its closure is the generator of a C₀-semigroup of contractions on C(d[0,1]) and C²(d[0,1]) is a core for it. The proof of such result is obtained by studying the solvability in Hölder spaces of functions of the elliptic problem λu(x)−LA,bu(x)=f(x), x∈d[0,1], for a sufficiently large class of functions f.     

Lipschitz continuity of Cheeger-harmonic functions in metric measure spaces

We use the heat equation to establish the Lipschitz continuity of Cheeger-harmonic functions in certain metric spaces. The metric spaces under consideration are those that are endowed with a doubling measure supporting a (1,2)-Poincaré inequality and in addition supporting a corresponding Sobolev-Poincaré-type inequality for the modification of the measure obtained via the heat kernel. Examples are given to illustrate the necessity of our assumptions on these spaces. We also provide an example to show that in the general setting the best possible regularity for the Cheeger-harmonic functions is Lipschitz continuity.     

Harnack inequality for harmonic functions relative to a nonlinear p-homogeneous Riemannian Dirichlet form

We state a Wiener criterion for the regularity of points with respect to a relaxed Dirichlet problem for a p-homogeneous Riemannian Dirichlet form.     

A class of elliptic pseudo differential operators generating symmetric Dirichlet forms

It is shown that a special class of symmetric elliptic pseudo differential operators do generate a Feller semigroup and therefore a non-local Dirichlet form.     

Positive Solutions to Singular Semilinear Elliptic Problems

We obtain a characterization of all locally bounded functions p ≥ 0 for which the equation (E) Δu +p(x)ψ(u) = 0 has a positive solution in Ω vanishing on the boundary, where Ω is a domain of ℝ^N and ψ > 0 is a nonincreasing continuous function on ]0,∞[. In particular, for Ω = ℝ^N with N ≥ 3, it is shown that (E) has a (unique) positive solution in ℝ^N which decays to zero at infinity if and only if the set {p > 0} has positive Lebesgue measure and This condition can be replaced by if p is radial.     

Wiener’s criterion for the unique solvability of the Dirichlet problem in arbitrary open sets with non-compact boundaries

This paper establishes a necessary and sufficient condition for the existence of a unique bounded solution to the classical Dirichlet problem in arbitrary open subset of R^N${\mathbb{R}}^N$ (N≥3$N\ge 3$) with a non-compact boundary. The criterion is the exact analogue of Wiener’s test for the boundary regularity of harmonic functions and characterizes the “thinness” of a complementary set at infinity. The Kelvin transformation counterpart of the result reveals that the classical Wiener criterion for the boundary point is a necessary and sufficient condition for the unique solvability of the Dirichlet problem in a bounded open set within the class of harmonic functions having a “fundamental solution” kind of singularity at the fixed boundary point. Another important outcome is that the classical Wiener’s test at the boundary point presents a necessary and sufficient condition for the “fundamental solution” kinds of singularities of the solution to the Dirichlet problem to be removable.     

Deduction of L. Hörmander's extension of Ásgeirsson's mean value theorem

L. Hörmander's extension of Ásgeirsson's mean value theorem states that if u is a solution of the inhomogeneous ultrahyperbolic equation (Δ_x−Δ_y)u=f, , , then