Propagation of microlocal regularities in Sobolev spaces to solutions of boundary value problems for elastic equations (Q2641674)

This paper deals with the propagation of microlocal regularities in Sobolev spaces of the solutions of the Dirichlet and the free boundary value problems to the isotropic elastic equation. The solution is assumed to belong microlocally to some Sobolev space \(H^s\) at a point of some incoming null bicharacteristic \(\gamma\) defined by the elastic equation. Let \(\gamma_-\) be the reflected generalized bicharacteristic defined by \(\gamma_+\) after \(\gamma_+\) touches the boundary. Certainly, \(\gamma_+\) could hit the boundary transversally (hyperbolic case) or in a diffractive way. In the hyperbolic case the solution does not loss regularity on \(\gamma_-\), while in the diffractive case the solution of the Dirichlet boundary value problem loses 1/2 regularity. It is interesting to point out that in the diffractive case and for the free boundary condition the solution loses 5/6 regularity on \(\gamma_-\). The last fact can be explained by the observation that the free boundary condition does not satisfy the uniform Lopatinskii condition.