Global solvability and global hypoellipticity for a class of complex vector fields on the 3-torus (Q496827)

In this paper, the authors study vector fields on the \(3\)-torus \(\mathbb{T}^3 = \mathbb{R}^3 / 2 \pi \mathbb{Z}^3\) which are of the form \[ L = \frac{\partial}{\partial t} + i b_1(t) \frac{\partial}{\partial x_1 } + i b_2(t) \frac{\partial}{\partial x_2 }, \] where \(b_1, b_2 : \mathbb{T} \to \mathbb{R}\) are \(C^\infty\) real-valued functions. Two properties of \(L\) are addressed, namely, \(L\) is said to be globally solvable if, when viewed as an operator on \(C^\infty(\mathbb{T}^3)\), it has closed range fand \(L\) is said to be globally hypoelliptic if, for every distribution \(\mu\), having \(L \mu \in C^\infty(\mathbb{T}^3)\) implies \(\mu \in C^\infty(\mathbb{T}^3)\). The main results of this paper is to give (in Theorem 1.1) conditions on the functions \(b_1, b_2\) that are necessary and sufficient for global solvability and (in Theorem 1.3) a different set of conditions that is necessary and sufficient for global hypoellipticity. In each case, the conditions on \(b_1, b_2\) are quite elementary and include so-called ``Diophantine conditions'' on the numbers \(b_{10} = \frac{1}{2\pi} \int_0^{2\pi} b_1(t)\,dt\) and \(b_{20} = \frac{1}{2\pi} \int_0^{2\pi} b_2(t)\,dt\). In particular, it is important to know whether or not \(b_{10}/b_{20}\) is rational, and if it is irrational, whether it is Liouville irrational (which can be well approximated by rationals). Connections are discussed to the Nirenberg-Treves condition (\(\mathcal{P}\)) which characterizes local solvability. For the problem at hand, condition (\(\mathcal{P}\)) is neither necessary nor sufficient for global solvability or hypoellipticity, but the authors discuss conditions under which it does or does not hold.