The Fredholm index of a second order elliptic system on an infinite cylinder (Q946273)

This paper concerns elliptic differential operators of the type \[ \sum^{N+1}_{\alpha,\beta=1}a_{\alpha\beta}(x)\partial_{x_\alpha}\partial_{x_\beta}+\sum^{N+1}_{\alpha+1}a_\alpha(x)\partial_{x_\alpha}+a_0(x),\;x\in\Omega+\mathbb{R} \] with homogeneous Dirichlet boundary conditions on \(\partial\Omega\times\mathbb{R}\), where \(\Omega\) is a bounded domain in \(\mathbb{R}^N\), and the coefficients \(a_{\alpha, \beta},a_\alpha\) and \(a_0\) are complex matrix valued. The aim is to state conditions (mainly on the asymptotic behavior of the coefficients) for Fredholmness in weighted and non-weighted Sobolev spaces and for independence of the index upon the functional setting. The method consists in identifying the operator with an abstract ``evolution'' operator of the type \[ \frac{d}{dx_{N+1}}-A(x_{N+1}):L^p(\mathbb{R};W)\cap W^{1,p}(\mathbb{R};X)\to L^p(\mathbb{R};X) \] with Banach spaces \(W \hookrightarrow X\).