The Diederich-Fornaess index and the global regularity of the \(\bar \partial\)-Neumann problem (Q2636978)

The paper under review deals with Sobolev estimates for the Bergman projections and the \(\overline{\partial}\)-Neumann operators on \(q\)-convex domains in terms of their Diederich-Fornæss index (\(q\)-convex is taken in the sense of \textit{G. Zampieri}'s monograph [Complex analysis and CR geometry. Providence, RI: American Mathematical Society (AMS) (2008; Zbl 1160.32001)]). Given the regularity results of \textit{H. P. Boas} and the reviewer [Math. Z. 206, No. 1, 81--88 (1991; Zbl 0696.32008)] when the domain admits a plurisubharmonic defining function, and of \textit{A. K. Herbig} and \textit{J. D. McNeal} [Math. Ann. 336, No. 2, 335--359 (2006; Zbl 1117.32023)] when it admits a ``\(q\)--plurisubharmonic'' defining function (the sum of the smallest \(q\) eigenvalues of the complex Hessian is non-negative), this is a very natural question. When \(q=1\), it was taken up by \textit{J. J. Kohn} [in: Analysis and geometry in several complex variables. Proceedings of the 40th Taniguchi symposium, Katata, Japan, 1997. Boston, MA: Birkhäuser. 97--128 (1999; Zbl 0941.32034)]. Here the authors revisit and refine some of these ideas. The main result is the following. If \(D\) is a \(q\)-convex domain and has a Diederich-Fornæss index \(\delta = \delta_{s}\) which ``controls'' the commutators of \(\overline{\partial}\) and \(\overline{\partial}^{*}\) with \(T^{s}\), then the Bergman projections \(B_{k}\) and the \(\overline{\partial}\)-Neumann operators \(N_{k}\) are regular in Sobolev norms up to level \(s\) when \(k \geq (q-1)\) and \(k \geq q\), respectively. Here \(T\) denotes as usual a vector field perpendicular to the complex tangent space (the bad direction), and the term ``controls'' is given a precise definition. As a technical tool, the authors develop a microlocal calculus at the boundary concerning the equivalence of \((-r)^{\sigma}\) and microlocal powers \(T^{-\sigma}\) for general functions (these matters are well understood for harmonic functions), where \(r\) is a defining function.