Global hypoellipticity for strongly invariant operators (Q2304877)

As is well-known, the hypoellipticity is a key property for a (pseudo-)differential operator $P$ and it plays a pivotal rôle in the Regularity Theory for $P$. Though usually not easy to prove (especially in a \textit{global form}), hypoellipticity is commonly obtained as a consequence of suitable \textit{a-priori estimates in Sobolev spaces}. In the present paper, the authors provide a full characterization of \textit{global} hypoellipticity for continuous strongly invariant operators $P$ acting on a closed manifold. Moreover, they investigate the relationship between the global hypoellipticity of $P$ and the validity of global subelliptic estimates. To be more precise, the authors deal with a $d$-dimensional closed manifold $M$, endowed with a smooth measure $\operatorname{d} x$, and they consider a linear operator \[ P:C^\infty(M)\to C^\infty(M). \] Following the theory on strongly invariant operators developed by \textit{J. Delgado} and \textit{M. Ruzhansky} [J. Anal. Math. 135, No. 2, 757--800 (2018; Zbl 1395.42023)], the key assumptions on $P$ are: \begin{itemize} \item[(i)] $P$ extends to extends to a linear continuous operator on $\mathcal{D}'(M)$; \item[(ii)] $P$ commutes with a (classical) positive elliptic pseudo-differential operator $E = E(x,D_x)$ of order $\nu\in\mathbb{N}$, that is, \[ PE = EP\qquad\text{on $L^2(M)$}. \] \end{itemize} Since $E$ is elliptic, there exists an orthonormal basis $\mathcal{E} = \{e_\ell\}_{\ell\geq 0}$ of $L^2(M)$ consisting of eigenfunctions of $E$; thus, denoting by $\widehat{f}(\ell)$ the Fourier coefficients of $f\in L^2(M)$ with respect to $\mathcal{E}$, the authors prove that (i)--(ii) are \textit{equivalent to} \[ \widehat{Pf}(\ell) = \sigma_P(\ell)\widehat{f}(\ell)\qquad \text{for every }\ell\in\mathbb{N}\cup\{0\}, \] where $\sigma_P(\ell)$ is a suitable square matrix with complex entries. With these notation at hand, one of the main results proved in the paper reads as follows. Theorem 1. The operator $P$ is {globally hypoelliptic} \textit{if and only if} there exists constants $L,m$ and $R$ such that \[ m(\sigma_P(j))\geq L(1+\lambda_j)^{m/\nu}\qquad\text{for every }j\geq R. \tag{1} \] Here, $\{\lambda_\ell\}_{\ell\geq 0}$ is the sequence of the eigenvalues of $E$, and \[ m(\sigma_P(j)) := \inf\big\{\|\sigma_P(j)v\|:\,\|v\| = 1\big\}. \] After having established Theorem 1, the authors investigate the relationship between {global} hypoellipticity and subelliptic estimates in Sobolev spaces. Though subdivided in some propositions of independent interest, the second main result of the paper can be summarized as follows. Theorem 2. If $P$ is {globally hypoelliptic}, then there exists a constant $C > 0$ such that, for every $m < h(P)$, one has the estimate \[ \|Pf\|_{H^s(M)}\geq C\|f\|_{H^{s+m}(M)}\qquad \text{for every }f \perp (\ker P)_{H^s(M)}. \tag{2} \] Here, $h(P)$ is the supremum of all $m$ such that (1) holds. Conversely, if $P$ satisfies (i)--(ii) and, moreover, \[ \ker(P)\subseteq C^\infty(M)\text{ and (2) holds for every }m > 0, \] then $P$ is {globally hypoelliptic}. Finally, as an application of Theorem 1, the authors characterize the global hypoellipticity of some concrete operators acting on compact Lie groups.