A mixed boundary value problem for the Laplacian (Q1101620)

This paper analyses the mixed boundary value problem associated with the Laplacian on a planar region when Dirichlet and Neumann conditions are imposed on open subsets of the boundary whose closures intersect on a finite number of points, and whose union is the whole boundary. Parametriced by the Sobolev regularity of an element in its domain, it is defined a one parameter family of continuous linear operators taking a distribution to its Laplacian plus the restriction of the distribution and its normal derivative to the corresponding pieces of the boundary. Using microlocal analysis techniques it is proven that this map is Fredholm only when the Sobolev regularity is not congruent to 1/2 modulo an integer, and its index is explicitly computed. On points where the map is not Fredholm it is shown that its range is not close although both kernel and cokernel are finite dimensional spaces.