Dirichlet problem with degeneration of the input data on the boundary of the domain (Q311202)

The paper under review deals with the Dirichlet problem for second order linear elliptic equations which degenerate on the boundary of the planar domain considered. Precisely, let \(\Omega\subset\mathbb{R}^2\) be a bounded and smooth domain, and set \(\rho(x)\) for the distance from \(x\in\Omega\) to \(\partial\Omega.\) The authors consider the problem \[ \begin{cases} -\sum\limits_{k=1}^2 \dfrac{\partial}{\partial x_k}\left( a_{kk}(x)\dfrac{\partial u}{\partial x_k}\right) + a(x)u=f(x) &\;\text{in}\;\Omega,\\ u=0 &\;\text{on}\;\partial\Omega, \end{cases} \] where \[ \sum_{i=1}^2 a_{ii}(x)\xi^2_i\geq c \rho^\beta(x)\sum_{i=1}^2 \xi^2_i,\qquad a(x)> c \rho^\beta(x) \] for some \(\beta\in\mathbb{R},\) and \[ \text{ess\,}\sup_{\Omega}\big|\rho^{-\beta}a_{ii}(x)\big|,\;\text{ess\,}\sup_{\Omega}\big|\rho^{-\beta+1}Da_{ii}(x)\big|,\;\text{ess\,}\sup_{\Omega}\big|\rho^{-\beta}a(x)\big| \leq C. \] Further on, let \(W^k_{2,\alpha}(\Omega)\) be the weighted space with norm \[ \|u\|_{W^k_{2,\alpha}(\Omega)}=\left( \sum_{|\lambda|\leq k}\int_\Omega \rho^{2\alpha}|D^\lambda u|^2\;dx\right)^{1/2} \] and \(L_{2,\alpha}(\Omega):=W^0_{2,\alpha}(\Omega).\) Denote by \(W^1_{2,\alpha}(\Omega,\delta)\) the set of functions \(u\) having bounded away from zero \(L_{2,\alpha}\)-norm away from \(\partial\Omega,\) and such that \[ |D^ku(x)\leq c \left(\dfrac{\delta}{\rho(x)}\right)^{\alpha+k}\quad \text{near}\;\partial\Omega,\;k=0,1. \] Assuming \(f\in L_{2,\mu}(\Omega)\) for some \(\mu\geq0,\) and taking arbitrary \(\nu\geq \mu+\beta/2,\) the authors define in a suitable way an \(R_\nu\)-generalized solution of the above Dirichlet problem from the space \(W^1_{2,\nu+\beta/2}(\Omega,\delta),\) and prove existence and uniqueness of such generalized solution.