Invariant subspaces of submarkovian semigroups (Q1021383)

Let \(X\) be a locally compact \(\sigma\)-compact metric space, \(\mu\) be a Radon measure on it with \(\operatorname{supp}\mu=X\). Let \(h\) be a regular symmetric Dirichlet form on \(X\); denote by \(D(h)\) its domain in \(L_2(X,\mu)\), and by \((S_t)_{t\geq 0}\) the semigroup related to \((h,D(h))\). It is assumed that \(h\) is local in the sense that \(h(u,v)=0\) for all \(u,v\in D(h)\) with \(uv=0\). The main result of the paper gives equivalent conditions for the \(S\)-invariance of a measurable subset \(L_2(\Omega,\mu)\), \(\Omega\subset X\), in terms of the capacity condition on the boundary. Namely, the two following conditions are equivalent: (i) \(S_t L_2(\Omega,\mu)\subset L_2(\Omega,\mu)\) for all \(t>0\); (ii) \(\exists A_1, A_2\subseteq \partial \Omega\), such that \(\partial \Omega =A_1\cup A_2\) and \(\bigcap_\Omega(A_1)=0=\bigcap_{\Omega^c} (A_2)\). The implication (i) \(\Rightarrow\) (ii) does not require the locality of the form. The paper contains examples which illustrate the main result.