Carleman estimates for the parabolic transmission problem and Hölder propagation of smallness across an interface (Q1753224)

The interesting paper under review deals with Carleman estimates for parabolic transmission problems and Hölder propagation of smallness for solutions to second order parabolic equations with general anisotropic leading coefficient that has a jump across an interface. More precisely, the authors consider the operator \[ \mathcal Lu= \operatorname{div}\big(A(x,t)Du\big)-\partial_tu \] with a symmetric and uniformly elliptic \(x\times n\) matrix \(A(x, t)\) that has jumps at a flat interface orthogonal to the time direction and which is Lipschitz continuous with respect to the parabolic distance on both the sides of the interface. The approach in getting the Carleman estimate is that of \textit{M. Di Cristo} et al. [J. Math. Pures Appl. (9) 108, No. 2, 163--206 (2017; Zbl 1376.35020)] and consists of three steps. First, the case when the coefficients of the operator \(\mathcal L\) depend only on the variable \(x_n\) normal to the interface is considered. The simpler structure of operator allows to prove a Carleman estimate by the aid of a weight function \(\phi\) which is linear in all the tangent variables \(x'\). This is done via Fourier transform with respect to \(x'\) and \(t\) of the conjugate operator \(e^{\tau\phi}\mathcal L(e^{-\tau\phi})\), which is further factorized into two first order operators. This way, the use of pseudodifferential calculus is avoided that gives the possibility to require weak regularity on the leading coefficients matrix. Nevertheless, the Carleman estimate obtained, for the features of the level set of the function \(\phi,\) does not allow to find a smallness propagation estimate across the interface even in the most simple case of a constant coefficients. In the second step an operator with general coefficients is considered and the weight is taken to be quadratic in \(x'\). Finally, the third step completes the proof by allowing dependence also on \(t\) at the weight function. The Carleman estimate obtained is further used to prove a three-region inequality, that is a Hölder type estimate for propagation of smallness across the interface. This is in fact a propagation of smallness in a more general situation of a \(C^{1,1}\)-smooth interface whose normal vectors are never parallel to the time axis.