Boundedness of single layer potentials associated to divergence form parabolic equations with complex coefficients (Q343001)

The authors consider parabolic operators of the form \[ \partial_t- \text{div} A (X,t)\nabla , \quad \text{ in } {\mathbb R^{n+2}_+}. \] The matrix \(A\) is \((n+1)\times(n+1)\)-dimensional, bounded, measurable, uniformly elliptic, complex with entries independent of the spatial coordinate \(x_{n+1}\) as well as of the time coordinate \(t.\) The authors prove that the boundedness of associated single layer potentials, with data in \(L^2,\) can be reduced to two crucial estimates, one being a square function estimate involving the single layer potential. By establishing a local parabolic \(Tb\)-theorem for square functions they verify the two crucial estimates in the case of real, symmetric operators. In addition a scale-invariant reverse Hölder inequality for the parabolic Poisson kernel is established. These results are important when addressing the solvability of the classical Dirichlet, Neumann and regularity problems for the operator \(\partial_t+{\mathcal L}\) in \(\mathbb R^{n+2}_+,\) with \(L^2\)-data on \(\mathbb R^{n+1}=\partial \mathbb R_+^{n+2},\) and by way of layer potentials.