Global solvability and hypoellipticity on the torus for a class of differential operators with variable coefficients (Q1201479)

The authors give conditions for global solvability and hypoellipticity for a class of second order differential operators on the torus \(T^ 2\). More precisely, let \[ P = (P_ x + ia(x) D_ y) (D_ x + ib(x)Dy) + \gamma (x)Dy + c(x) \] where \(\gamma (x)\) equals either 0 or \((a'(x) - b'(x))\), \(a,b,c \in C^ \infty (T)\). If \(\text{Re} a(x)\) and \(\text{Re} b(x)\) do not change sign and are not identically zero, and if \({1 \over K_ a + 1} + {1 \over K_ b + 1}>0\) (where \(K_ a\), resp. \(K_ b\) are the maximal order of vanishing of \(\text{Re} a(x)\), resp. of \(\text{Re} b(x)\) or \(\sup | c(x) | < (e^{| \omega_ a |} - 1)(e^{| \omega_ b |} - 1) / 2 \pi^ 2 e^{| \omega_ a | + | \omega_ b |}\) (where \(\omega_ a = \int^{2 \pi}_ 0 \text{Re} a(x) dx\), \(\omega_ b\) defined similarly), then \(\dim \text{Ker} (P)<\infty\), \(\dim \text{Ker} (P^*) < \infty\), and the operator \(P\) is globally hypoelliptic. If \(f \in D'(T^ 2)\) then the equation \(P(D)u=f\) has a solution iff \(\langle f, \varphi \rangle_{D'(T^ 2)} = 0\) for any \(\varphi \in \text{Ker} (P^*)\). The authors give also some other results (dropping the assumption that Re \(a\) or Re \(b\) do not vanish identically). The interesting point is that if \(\tau_ a/(2 \pi)\) where \(\tau_ a = \int^{2 \pi}_ 0 \text{Im }a(x)dx\) is an Liouville number (if \(\text{Re} a \equiv 0 \equiv \text{Re} b)\) then there exists an \(s > 1\) such that \[ P_ 0 = (D_ x + ia(x)D_ y) (D_ x + ib(x)D_ y) + (a'(x) - b'(x))D_ y \] , is globally hypoelliptic in the Gevrey class \(G^ s(T^ 2)\). And, with some additional conditions, the equation \(P_ 0u=f\) has a solution for every \(f\) satisfying \(\int^{2 \pi}_ 0 \int^{2 \pi}_ 0 f(x,y) d_ x d_ y=0\).