Differences between fundamental solutions of general higher order elliptic operators and of products of second order operators

DOI10.1007/S00208-020-02015-3MaRDI QIDQ832470zbMATH OpenOpenAlexFDO

Authors Giulio Romani, Guido Sweers, Hans-Christoph Grunau

Publication date 25 March 2022

Published in Mathematische Annalen (Search for Journal in Brave)

Copyright license Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/1902.06503

zbMATH Keywords

high space dimensionsign changing fundamental solutions

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Higher-order elliptic equations (35J30) Fundamental solutions to PDEs (35A08) Green's functions for elliptic equations (35J08)

Abstract: We study fundamental solutions of elliptic operators of order $2mgeq4$ with constant coefficients in large dimensions $nge2m$, where their singularities become unbounded. For compositions of second order operators these can be chosen as convolution products of positive singular functions, which are positive themselves. As soon as $ngeq3$, the polyharmonic operator $(-Delta{)}^m$ may no longer serve as a prototype for the general elliptic operator. It is known from examples of [V.G. Maz'ya, S. A. Nazarov, Math. Notes 39 (1986); Transl. of Mat. Zametki 39 (1986)] and [E.B. Davies, Journal Differ. Equations 135 (1997)] that in dimensions $nge2m+3$ fundamental solutions of specific operators of order $2mgeq4$ may change sign near their singularities: there are ``positive as well as ``negative directions along which the fundamental solution tends to $+infty$ and $-infty$ respectively, when approaching its pole. In order to understand this phenomenon systematically we first show that existence of a ``positive direction directly follows from the ellipticity of the operator. We establish an inductive argument by space dimension which shows that sign change in some dimension implies sign change in any larger dimension for suitably constructed operators. Moreover, we deduce for $n=2m$, $n=2m+2$ and for all odd dimensions an explicit closed expression for the fundamental solution in terms of its symbol. From such formulae it becomes clear that the sign of the fundamental solution for such operators depends on the dimension. Indeed, we show that we have even sign change for a suitable operator of order $2m$ in dimension $n=2m+2$. On the other hand we show that in the dimensions $n=2m$ and $n=2m+1$ the fundamental solution of any such elliptic operator is always positive around its singularity.

Recommendations

• Asymptotic behaviour of fundamental solutions of elliptic operators with order higher than two
• Positivity for Perturbations of Polyharmonic Operators with Dirichlet Boundary Conditions in Two Dimensions
• Fundamental solutions and two properties of elliptic maximal and minimal operators
• Fundamental solutions of two multidimensional elliptic equations
• Fundamental solutions of homogeneous elliptic differential operators.

Cites work

• scientific article; zbMATH DE number 3114615 (Why is no real title available?)
• scientific article; zbMATH DE number 3753134 (Why is no real title available?)
• scientific article; zbMATH DE number 47968 (Why is no real title available?)
• scientific article; zbMATH DE number 3483022 (Why is no real title available?)
• scientific article; zbMATH DE number 3547903 (Why is no real title available?)
• A partial differential equation arising in conformal mapping
• Dirichlet's problem for linear elliptic partial differential equations
• Elliptic Partial Differential Equations of Second Order
• Estimates near the boundary for solutions of elliptic partial differential equations satisfying general boundary conditions. I
• Limits on \(L^ p\) regularity of self-adjoint elliptic operators
• Optimal estimates from below for biharmonic Green functions
• Polyharmonic boundary value problems. Positivity preserving and nonlinear higher order elliptic equations in bounded domains
• Positivity and almost positivity of biharmonic Green's functions under Dirichlet boundary conditions
• The vertex of a cone can be nonregular in the Wiener sense for a fourth- order elliptic equation

Cited in

(4)

• Fundamental solutions and two properties of elliptic maximal and minimal operators
• Positivity for the clamped plate equation under high tension
• A biharmonic converse to Krein-Rutman: a maximum principle near a positive eigenfunction
• Optimal estimates from below for Green functions of higher order elliptic operators with variable leading coefficients

This page was built for publication: Differences between fundamental solutions of general higher order elliptic operators and of products of second order operators

Report a bug (only for logged in users!)Click here to report a bug for this page (MaRDI item Q832470)