On regularity for Beurling-Deny type Dirichlet forms (Q1811020)

The author extends the DeGiorgi-Nash-Moser theory from local diffusion operators to some Beurling-Deny type Dirichlet forms, and proves a Harnack inequality and the continuity of weak solutions. More precisely, let \(\Omega \subset \mathbb{R}^n\) be a bounded domain, let \(\alpha \in [1,2)\), \(\Lambda >0\), and \(a_{ij}:\Omega \to \mathbb{R}\) be measurable functions such that \(\sum_{i,j} a_{ij}(x)\xi_i\xi_j \geq \Lambda |\xi|^2\), for all \(x\in \Omega\), \(\xi\in\mathbb{R}^n\). Consider the following Dirichlet form \({\mathcal E}\) with the domain \({\mathcal D}({\mathcal E})=H_0^1(\Omega)\): \[ \begin{multlined} {\mathcal E}(u,v):= \sum_{i,j}\int_{\Omega}a_{ij}(x)D_i u(x) D_j v(x) dx + \\ + \int_\Omega \int_\Omega {[(u(y)-u(x))(v(y)-v(x))]\over|y-x|^{n+\alpha}} dy dx +2\int_\Omega u(x)v(x)k_{ \Omega} (x) dx\end{multlined} \] where \(k_{ \Omega} (x)=\int_{\mathbb{R}^n\setminus \Omega}|y-x|^{-n-\alpha} dy\). Let \(\lambda \geq 0\), \(q>n\), \(\delta =\min\{(q-n)/n, 1-\alpha/2\}\) and \(f\in L^{q/2}(\Omega)\). The author studies the equation \[ {\mathcal E}(u,\phi)+\lambda (u,\phi)=(f,\phi)\;\;\forall \phi\in H_0^1(\Omega) , \] and shows that any positive supersolution satisfies a weak Harnack inequality \[ C R^{\delta} +\inf_{B_R(x_0)} u \geq C R^{-n/p}\left(\int_{B_{2R}(x_0)} |u|^p\right)^{1/p} \] for all \(p< n/(n-2)\) and radii \(R< R_0\). Here \(x_0\in \Omega \) and \(R_0\) is such that \(B_{4R}(x_0) \subset \Omega\). Moreover, any solution of the equation is Hölder continuous. The method of proof is to identify the Dirichlet form \({\mathcal E}\) with the bilinear form of a certain integro-differential operator and to use Moser's iteration technique. The author also discusses extensions of results.