The weak maximum principle for degenerate elliptic equations: unbounded domains and systems (Q2128552)

This paper presents some results on the validity of Alexandrov-Bakelman-Pucci type estimates and the weak Maximum Principle for upper semicontinuous functions satisfying in the viscosity sense the fully nonlinear differential inequality \[ F(x,u,Du,D^2u)\geq f(x), \quad x\in \Omega. \] Here, \(\Omega\subseteq \mathbb{R}^n\) is a domain satisfying a certain measure-geometric condition, \(f:\Omega\rightarrow \mathbb{R}\) is a bounded continuous function, and \[F:\Omega\times \mathbb{R}\times \mathbb{R}^n\times \mathcal{S}^n\rightarrow \mathbb{R},\] where \(\mathcal{S}^n\) is the space of \(n\times n\)-symmetric matrices, is a continuous degenerate elliptic function such that \begin{itemize} \item[1)] \(\lambda \mathrm{Tr}(Q)\leq F(x,t,p,X+Q)-F(x,t,p,X)\leq \Lambda\mathrm{Tr}(Q)\), for all \(Q\in \mathcal{S}^n\) positive semidefinite, and some \(0<\lambda\leq\Lambda\); \item[2)] \(F(x,\cdot,p,X)\) is nonincreasing; \item[3)] \(F(x,0,p,0)\leq \beta(x)|p|\), for some bounded function \(\beta\). \end{itemize} A further result on the validity of the weak Maximum Principle for upper semicontinuous viscosity solutions of a class of degenerate elliptic cooperative systems is also presented.