\(L^p\) theory for fractional gradient PDE with \(VMO\) coefficients (Q900705)

The authors prove \(L^p\)-estimates for the fractional derivatives of solutions to elliptic fractional partial differential equations whose coefficients are VMO. Precisely, for \(A\) being uniformly elliptic, for given \(\varphi\in H^s(\mathbb R^N)\) and \(g\in L^2(\Omega)\), there exists \(u\in H^s(\mathbb R^N)\) that satisfies \[ \int_{\mathbb R^N}A(x)D^s u(x) \cdot D^sv(x)\, dx=\int_{\mathbb R^N}gv\,dx \] for all \(v\in C^\infty_c(\mathbb R^N)\) and \(u=\varphi\) in \(\mathbb R^N\setminus \Omega\). Here, \(s\in (0,1),\) \(D^su=DI_{1-s}u\) and \(I_{1-s}\) is the Riesz potential. The present work extends the optimal regularity known in the second-order elliptic setting to a spectrum of fractional-order elliptic equations.