Quantitative uniqueness for second-order elliptic operators (Q1974779)

Let \(u\) be a nontrivial solution of the equation \[ -(a_{ij} u_{x_i})_{x_j}+ V(x)u= 0 \] in a \(C^{1,1}\)-domain \(\Omega\subset \mathbb{R}^n\) subject to Dirichlet boundary data. Suppose \(a_{ij}= a_{ji}\) are uniformly Lipschitz continuous in \(\overline\Omega\) and satisfy \(a_{ij}|_{\partial\Omega}\in C^{1,1}(\partial\Omega)\), and let \(V\in L^\infty(\Omega)\). The purpose of the present paper is to estimate the maximal order of vanishing of \(u\) in \(\Omega\). Under the above assumptions the author proves that this order is less than \[ C(1+ (\textstyle{\sup_\Omega} V_-)^{{1\over 2}}+ (\text{osc}_\Omega V)^2), \] where the constant \(C\) depends only on the \(C^{1,1}\)-data of \(\Omega\) and \(a_{ij}|_{\partial\Omega}\), the ellipticity constant of the matrix \((a_{ij})^n_{i,j= 1}\), and the dimension \(n\). The result carries over to the equation \(-\Delta_M u+ V(x)u= 0\) on a smooth, compact Riemannian manifold \(M\) with boundary. This generalizes an earlier result of Donnelly and Fefferman.