Strongly elliptic linear operators without coercive quadratic forms. I: Constant coefficient operators and forms (Q479522)

Let \(\Omega\subset \mathbb R^6\) be an open bounded set and \[ A[u,v]=\sum_{|\alpha|\leq 2,|\beta|\leq 2}\int_{\Omega}a_{\alpha\beta}\partial^\alpha u\partial^\beta \bar{v}dX, \] for \(u,v\in W^{2,2}(\Omega)\) be any constant coefficient Hermitian bilinear form associated to any one of the elliptic fourth order homogeneous real constant coefficient linear partial differential operators \[ \begin{multlined} L_\gamma(\partial)=(\frac{\partial_1^2+\partial_2^2}{4}-\partial_3^2)^2 \\ + (\partial_3^2-\gamma(\partial_4^2+\partial_5^2+\partial_6^2))^2 + (\partial_3\partial_4-\partial_5\partial_6)^2+ (\partial_3\partial_5-\partial_6\partial_4)^2+ (\partial_3\partial_6-\partial_4\partial_5)^2,\end{multlined} \] where \(0<\gamma<1/3\) and \(\partial_j=\partial/\partial X_j\) for \(X=(X_1,\cdots,X_6)\). Set \(A[v]=A[v,v]\). The author proves that: For each above operator \(L_\gamma\), there exist bounded convex domains \(\Omega\) of \(\mathbb R^6\) in which no constant coefficient Hermitian quadratic form \(A[v]\) associated to \(L_\gamma\) can be coercive over the Sobolev space \(W^{2,2}(\Omega)\). The proof is given after some reduction processes involving much knowledge which is not always easy to read. Finally, three open problems are given.