Hypoellipticity and loss of derivatives (Q2496974)

Let \(\{X_1,X_2,\dots,X_p \}\) be complex-valued vector fields in \(\mathbb R^n\) and assume that they satisfy the bracket condition (i.e. that their Lie algebra spans all vector fields), and \(E:=\sum X_i^* X_i\), where \(X_i^*\) is \(L_2\) adjoint of \(X_i\). The operator \(E\) is subelliptic at point \(P \in \mathbb R^n\) if there exists a neighborhood \(U\) of \(P\), a real number \(\epsilon >0\), and a constant \(C=(U<\varepsilon)\), such that \[ \|u \|_{\epsilon} \leq C(|Eu,u)| + \|u \|^2),\tag{1} \] for all \(u \in C_0^{\infty}(U)\). The author studies whether \(E\) is hypoelliptic and whether it satisfies the subelliptic estimate (1). If \(\{ X_i,\{X_i,X_j \}\}\) spans the complex tangent space at the origin, then a subelliptic estimate \[ \|u \|_{\varepsilon} \leq C(\sum \|X_j^2 \|^2 + \|u \|^2), \] is satisfied, with \(\varepsilon=\frac{1}{2}\). For \(k \geq 0\) there exist complex vector fields \(X_{1k}\) and \(X_2\) on a neighborhood of the origin in \(\mathbb R^3\) such that the two vectorfields \(\{X_{1k},X_2 \}\) and their commutators of order \(k+1\) span the complexified tangent space at the origin, and when \(k > 0 \) the subelliptic estimate (1) does not hold. Moreover, when \(k > 1\), the operator \(E_k= X_{1k}^* X_{1k} + X_2^* X_2\) loses \(k\) derivatives in the sup norms and \(k-1\) derivatives in the Sobolev norms. If \(X_{1k}\) and \(X_2\) are the vector fields given in Theorem 2 then the operator \(E_k= X_{1k}^* X_{1k} + X_2^* X_2\) is hypoelliptic. More precisely, if \(u\) is a distribution solution of \(Eu=f\) with \(u \in H^{-s_0}(\mathbb R^3)\) and if \(U \subset \mathbb R^3\) is an open set such that \(f \in H^{s_2}(U)\), then \(u \in H^{s_2-k+1}_{loc}(U)\). Theorem 2 shows that the loss of derivatives is \(k-1\). The author introduces subelliptic multipliers to establish subelliptic estimates for the \(\bar{\partial}\)-Neumann problem. To prove these theorems he uses subelliptic multipliers.