Perturbations of local maxima and comparison principles for boundary-degenerate linear differential equations

obstacle problems partial Dirichlet boundary conditions boundary-degenerate elliptic differential operators boundary-degenerate parabolic differential operators

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Maximum principles in context of PDEs (35B50) Comparison principles in context of PDEs (35B51) Viscosity solutions to PDEs (35D40) Degenerate elliptic equations (35J70) Unilateral problems for linear elliptic equations and variational inequalities with linear elliptic operators (35J86) Degenerate parabolic equations (35K65) Unilateral problems for linear parabolic equations and variational inequalities with linear parabolic operators (35K85)

Abstract: We develop strong and weak maximum principles for boundary-degenerate elliptic and parabolic linear second-order partial differential operators,

A u := - m a t h r m t r (a D^{2} u) - < b, D u > + c u

, with partial Dirichlet boundary conditions. The coefficient,

a (x)

, is assumed to vanish along a non-empty open subset,

p a r t i a l_{0} m a t h s c r O

, called the emph{degenerate boundary portion}, of the boundary,

p a r t i a l m a t h s c r O

, of the domain

m a t h s c r O s u b s e t m a t h b b R^{d}

, while

a (x)

is non-zero at any point of the emph{non-degenerate boundary portion},

p a r t i a l_{1} m a t h s c r O := p a r t i a l m a t h s c r O s e t m i n u s o v e r l i n e p a r t i a l_{0} m a t h s c r O

. If an

A

-subharmonic function,

u

in

C^{2} (m a t h s c r O)

or

W_{m a t h r m l o c}^{2, d} (m a t h s c r O)

, is

C^{1}

up to

p a r t i a l_{0} m a t h s c r O

and has a strict local maximum at a point in

p a r t i a l_{0} m a t h s c r O

, we show that

u

can be perturbed, by the addition of a suitable function

w i n C^{2} (m a t h s c r O) c a p C^{1} (m a t h b b R^{d})

, to a strictly

A

-subharmonic function

v = u + w

having a local maximum in the interior of

m a t h s c r O

. Consequently, we obtain strong and weak maximum principles for

A

-subharmonic functions in

C^{2} (m a t h s c r O)

and

W_{m a t h r m l o c}^{2, d} (m a t h s c r O)

which are

C^{1}

up to

p a r t i a l_{0} m a t h s c r O

. Only the non-degenerate boundary portion,

p a r t i a l_{1} m a t h s c r O

, is required for boundary comparisons. Our results extend those in Daskalopoulos and Hamilton (1998), Epstein and Mazzeo [arXiv:1110.0032], and the author [arXiv:1204.6613, 1306.5197], where

m a t h r m t r (a D^{2} u)

is in addition assumed to be continuous up to and vanish along

p a r t i a l_{0} m a t h s c r O

in order to yield comparable maximum principles for

A

-subharmonic functions in

C^{2} (m a t h s c r O)

, while the results developed here for

A

-subharmonic functions in

W_{m a t h r m l o c}^{2, d} (m a t h s c r O)

are entirely new.

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