Elliptic operators with unbounded diffusion and drift coefficients in \(L^p\) (Q2450327)

The authors investigate the operator \(Lu=(1+|x|^\alpha)\Delta u+c|x|^{\alpha-1}\frac{x}{|x|}\cdot\nabla\) in the spaces \(L^p:=L^p({\mathbb R}^N,dx)\). The following results are proved. {\parindent=0.7cm\begin{itemize}\item[(1)] Let \(\alpha>2\), \(c>2-N\), \(p> N/(N-2+c)\), \(\lambda>0\). Then the operator \(\lambda-L\) is invertible in \(L^p\) and its inverse is a positive operator.\item[(2)] If \(1<p<\infty\), \(2<\alpha<N/p'+c\), then \(\text{Dom}(L)\) coincides with the maximal domain in \(L^p\), that is, \(D_p:=\left\{u\in L^p\cap W^{2,p}_{\mathrm{loc}}: Lu\in L^p\right\}\). \item[(3)] Let \(\alpha>2\), \(p>N/(N-2+c)\), then \(L\) generates an analytic semigroup in \(L^p\). \item[(4)] If \(c\geq\alpha>2\), \(1<p<\infty\), \(p>N/(N-2+c)\), then \(L\) generates a positive analytic semigroup of contractions in \(L^p\). \end{itemize}} Spectral properties (discreteness and \(p\)-independence) and kernel estimates of the operator \(L\) are also obtained.