Resolvent estimates in \(W^{-1,p}\) for second order elliptic differential operators in case of mixed boundary conditions (Q1112246)

In many physical applications it is necessary to regard elliptic differential operators div(a grad) where the coefficients \(a=(a_{jk})\) are discontinuous and the domain is nonsmooth. For this situation the \(W^{1,p}-W^{-1,p}\) calculus (adapted to various boundary conditions) turns out to be an appropriate framework. In the paper it is shown that such operators provide isomorphisms from \(W^{1,p}\) onto \(W^{-1,p}\) and obey a priori estimates of the type \[ \| u\|_{1,p}\leq \gamma \sup_{Re \lambda \geq 0}\| (div(a \text{grad})u+\lambda u)\|_{- 1,p}, \] if \(p>2\) is sufficiently close to 2. From this it is concluded that -div(a grad) generates a bounded analytic semigroup on \(W^{-1,p}\).