The case where a solution to a boundary-value problem is a polynomial (Q1594430)

Let \(\sigma\) be a unit sphere in \(\mathbb R^n\) and \(P_m(x) (x\in \mathbb R^n)\) be a polynomial of degree \(m\). It is known that the main theorem of spherical functions asserts that there exists a harmonic polynomial \(H_m(x)\) such that \(H_m(\xi)=P_m(\xi)\) for \(\xi\in\sigma\). In the present work a generalization of this result is obtained: instead of the Laplace operator an arbitrary selfadjoint elliptic operator of degree \(2l\) \[ L=\sum_{|\alpha|=|\beta|=l}a_{\alpha\beta}\frac{\partial^{\alpha+\beta}} {\partial x^\alpha\partial x^\beta} \quad (a_{\alpha\beta}=a_{\beta\alpha}) \] is considered and \(\sigma=\sigma_s\equiv\{\xi\in\mathbb R^n\mid H_s(\xi)=1\}\) is an ellipsoid of degree \(2s\) bounding the domain \(\Omega\subset\mathbb R^n\). Here \(H_s(x)=\sum_{|\alpha|=|\beta|=s}b_{\alpha\beta}x^{\alpha+\beta}\geq k \sum_{|\alpha|=s}x^{2\alpha}\). The following boundary value problem \[ Lu(x)=0,\;x\in\Omega;\quad \partial^k u/\partial\nu^k=\partial^k P_m/ \partial\nu^k\quad \text{on }\sigma_s,\;k=0,1,\dotsc,l-1,\tag{*} \] where \(\nu\) is an outside normal to \(\sigma_s\) is considered. It is proved that 1) if \(s=1\) then for any polynomial \(P_m(x)\) the solution to (*) is a polynomial of degree \(m\); 2) if \(s>1\) then there exists a polynomial \(P_m(x)\) such that the boundary value problem (*) has a solution that is not a polynomial of degree \(m\).