An operator theoretic approach to uniform (anti-)maximum principles (Q2064306)

Given a general differential operator \(A\) with domain \(\mathrm{dom}(A)\) in a Banach lattice \(E\), the authors study the question whether the operator \(A\) satisfies the maximum principle or the anti-maximum principle in a neighborhood of a simple eigenvalue. That is, given the equation \[ (\lambda-A)u=f \] for real numbers \(\lambda\) in the resolvent set of \(A\) the problem is to answer whether \(f\geq 0\) implies \(u\geq 0\) (maximum principle) or \(u\leq 0\) (anti-maximum principle). Indeed, in this work, the authors actually study a stronger implication, which studies \(\lambda\) such that the solution \(u\) to the above equation actually dominates a positive multiple of the leading eigenfunction of \(A\) (or a negative multiple in case of the anti-maximum principle). The main contribution of this article uses two assumptions given a fixed positive function \(u\in E\), a fixed positive functional \(\phi\in E'\), and an eigenvalue \(\lambda_0\) of \(A\). The first assumption on \(A\), \(u\), and \(\phi\) is the \textit{domination assumption} stating that there are integers \(m_1,m_2\geq 0\) such that the modulus of every element of \(\mathrm{dom}(A^{m_1})\) resp. \(\mathrm{dom}((A')^{m_2})\) is dominated by a positive multiple of \(u\) resp. \(\phi\). The second assumption is a \textit{spectral assumption}, which states that \(\lambda_0\) is a geometrically simple eigenvalue of \(A\) and of \(A'\) and the eigenspace \(\ker(\lambda_0-A)\) resp. \(\ker(\lambda_0-A')\) is spanned by a vector \(v\) resp. \(\psi\) such that \(v\) dominates a positive multiple of \(u\) and \(\psi\) dominates a positive multiple of \(\phi\). Under these assumptions the authors then show that if there is a number \(\mu_0>\lambda_0\) in the resolvent set of \(A\) such that the resolvent \(R(\mu_0,A)=(\mu_0-A)^{-1}\) dominates a positive multiple of the functional \(f\mapsto -\langle \phi,f\rangle u\), then \(R(\mu,A)\) dominates a positive multiple of \(f\mapsto \langle \phi,f\rangle u\) for all \(\mu\) in a right neighborhood of \(\lambda_0\). This gives the \textit{uniform maximum principle}, that is a maximum principle statement independent of the right hand side of the equation. In a similar way, the authors also get a uniform anti-maximum principle in a left-neighborhood of \(\lambda_0\). The authors complement their work with several examples including the Laplacian with different boundary conditions, polyharmonic operators, and a delay differential operator.