On a new method of proving Gevrey hypoellipticity for certain sums of squares (Q261169)

The authors consider the operator in \(\mathbb{R}^3_{t,x,y}\), \[ P= D^2_x+ x^{2(p-1)}(D_y- x^r D_t)^2, \] where \(p,r\in\mathbb{N}\), and study the Gevrey hypoellipticity. The operator \(P\) is a crucial example in the theory of the sum-of-squares operators. For \(p=r=1\) the operator \(P\) is known to be analytic-hypoelliptic. The case \(p=1\), \(r\geq 2\) was treated by \textit{M. Crist} [Commun. Partial Differ. Equations 16, No. 10, 1695--1707 (1991; Zbl 0762.35017)], where non-analytic hypoellipticity was proved. Here the authors obtain a sharp result for arbitrary \(p\) and \(r\), one at least of them larger than 1. Namely, \(P\) is \(s\)-Gevrey hypoelliptic for \(s=(p+ r)/p\), and such result of regularity is proved to be optimal. The proof is given by pseudo-differential techniques and precise a priori estimates.