Boundary value problems for elliptic partial differential operators on bounded domains (Q880077)

Let \(T\) be an operator whose closure is the adjoint \(A^*\) of a closed symmetric operator \(A\) in a Hilbert space \(H\) and let \(\Gamma_0, \Gamma_1\) be mappings from \(\text{dom}(T)\) to a Hilbert space \(G\). Suppose that the abstract Green's identity \[ (A^*f,g)_H- (f,A^*g)_H= (\Gamma_1 f,\Gamma_0 g)_G- (\Gamma_0 f,\Gamma_1 g)_G \] holds for all \(f,g\in\text{dom}(T)\), that \(\Gamma_0\times \Gamma_1\) has dense range, and that \(\ker(\Gamma_0)\) is the domain of a selfadjoint operator. Then \((G,\Gamma_0,\Gamma_1)\) is called a quasi-boundary triple for \(A^*\). This structure is generalized to closed symmetric relations \(A\) in \(H\). As for boundary triples studied by previous authors, there is an associated Weyl function which for elliptic operators coincides with the Dirichlet-to-Neumann map. The present authors develop a theory of quasi-boundary triples. In particular, they describe some selfadjoint extensions of \(A\) as restrictions of \(T\). The theory is applied it to boundary value problems for second-order elliptic differential operators on bounded domains \(\Omega\) with boundary values in \(L^2(\partial\Omega)\).