Square roots of elliptic operators (Q1075582)

Assume \(\Omega\) is an open subset of \(R^ n\), V is a closed subspace of the Sobolev space \(H^ 1(\Omega)\) which contains \(C_ 0^{\infty}(\Omega)\) and J is a sesquilinear form defined on \(V\times V\) by \[ J[u,v]=\int_{\Omega}\{\sum a_{ik}\frac{\partial u}{\partial x_ k}\frac{\overline{\partial v}}{\partial x_ j}+\sum a_ k\frac{\partial u}{\partial x_ k}\bar v+\sum \alpha_ ju\frac{\overline{\partial v}}{\partial x_ j}+ au\bar v dx \] where \(a_{jk}\), \(a_ k\), \(\alpha_ j\), \(a\in L_{\infty}(\Omega)\) and Re \(\sum a_{jk}\zeta_ k{\bar \zeta}_ j\geq K| \zeta |^ 2\) for all \(\zeta \in C^ n\) and some \(K>0\). Assume L is an operator with largest domain \({\mathcal D}(L)\) satisfying \(J[u,v]=(Lu,v)\), (\(\forall)\) \(v\in V\). One deals with some problems raised by Kato in connection with his study of parabolic and hyperbolic equations. Under quite mild regularity conditions of the coefficients and appropriate conditions on \(\Omega\) and V one proves that \((L+\lambda I)^{1/2}\) is a bounded operator from V to \(L_ 2(\Omega)\) and if \(a_{jk}=\bar a_{kj}\) and \(\lambda \geq \lambda_ 0\) then \[ {\mathcal D}((L+\lambda I)^{1/2})={\mathcal D}((L+\lambda I)^{*()})=V, \] \((L+\lambda I)^{1/2}-(L+\lambda I)^{*()}\) extends to a bounded operator on \(L_ 2(\Omega).\) If the coefficients \(a_{t,k}\), \(a_ t\in C^ m([0,t_ 1]\), \(L_{\infty}(\Omega))\) and \(a_{t,jk}\), \(\alpha_{t,j}\in C^ m([0,t_ 1]\), \(M^ s(\Omega))\) then each associated operator \((L_ t+\lambda I)\) is maximal accretive for \(\lambda \geq \lambda_ 1\) and its square root \((L_ t+\lambda I)^{1/2}\in C^ m([0,t_ 1],{\mathcal L}(V,L_ 2(\Omega)))\).