On a class of nonlocal obstacle type problems related to the distributional Riesz fractional derivative (Q6041146)

Summary: In this work, we consider the nonlocal obstacle problem with a given obstacle \(\psi\) in a bounded Lipschitz domain \(\Omega\) in \(\mathbb{R}^d\), such that \(\mathbb{K}^s_{\psi} = \{ v\in H^S_0 (\Omega) : v\geq \psi\) a.e. in \(\Omega\}\neq \emptyset\), given by \[ u\in \mathbb{K}^s_{\psi} : \quad \langle\mathcal{L}_a u, v-u\rangle \geq \langle F,v-u\rangle\quad \forall v\in \mathbb{K}^s_{\psi}, \] for \(F\) in \(H^{-s}(\Omega)\), the dual space of the fractional Sobolev space \(H^s_0 (\Omega), 0 < s < 1\). The nonlocal operator \(\mathcal{L}_a : H^s_0 (\Omega)\to H^{-s}(\Omega)\) is defined with a measurable, bounded, strictly positive singular kernel \(a(x, y): \mathbb{R}^d \times \mathbb{R}^d \to [0,\infty)\), by the bilinear form \[ \langle\mathcal{L}_a u,v\rangle =\mathrm{P.V.} \int_{\mathbb{R}^d}\int_{\mathbb{R}^d} \tilde{v}(x)(\tilde{u}(x)-\tilde{u}(y))a(x,y)\, dy\, dx = \mathcal{E}_a (u,v), \] which is a (not necessarily symmetric) Dirichlet form, where \(\tilde{u}, \tilde{v}\) are the zero extensions of \(u\) and \(v\) outside \(\Omega\) respectively. Furthermore, we show that the fractional operator \(\widetilde{\mathcal{L}}_A = -D^s \cdot AD^s : H^s_0 (\Omega)\to H^{-s} (\Omega)\) defined with the distributional Riesz fractional \(D^s\) and with a measurable, bounded matrix \(A(x)\) corresponds to a nonlocal integral operator \(\mathcal{L}_{k_A}\) with a well-defined integral singular kernel \(a = k_A\). The corresponding \(s\)-fractional obstacle problem for \(\widetilde{\mathcal{L}}_A\) is shown to converge as \(s \nearrow 1\) to the obstacle problem in \(H^1_0 (\Omega)\) with the operator \(-D\cdot AD\) given with the classical gradient \(D\). We mainly consider obstacle type problems involving the bilinear form \(\mathcal{E}_a\) with one or two obstacles, as well as the \(N\)-membranes problem, thereby deriving several results, such as the weak maximum principle, comparison properties, approximation by bounded penalization, and also the Lewy-Stampacchia inequalities. This provides regularity of the solutions, including a global estimate in \(L^{\infty}(\Omega)\), local Hölder regularity of the solutions when \(a\) is symmetric, and local regularity in fractional Sobolev spaces \(W^{2s,p}_{\mathrm{loc}}(\Omega)\) and in \(C^1 (\Omega)\) when \(\mathcal{L}_a =(-\Delta)^s\) corresponds to fractional \(s\)-Laplacian obstacle type problems \[ u\in \mathbb{K}^s_{\psi} (\Omega) : \quad\int_{\mathbb{R}^d} (D^s u-f) \cdot D^s (v-u) dx\geq 0 \quad \forall v\in \mathbb{K}^s_{\psi} \text{ for } f \in [L^2 (\mathbb{R}^d)]^d. \] These novel results are complemented with the extension of the Lewy-Stampacchia inequalities to the order dual of \(H^s_0 (\Omega)\) and some remarks on the associated \(s\)-capacity and the \(s\)-nonlocal obstacle problem for a general \(\mathcal{L}_a\).