Ratios of harmonic functions with the same zero set

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Abstract: We study the ratio of harmonic functions u,v, which have the same zero set Z in the unit ball BsubsetmathbbRn. The ratio f=u/v can be extended to a real analytic nowhere vanishing function in B. We prove the Harnack inequality and the gradient estimate for such ratios in any dimension: for a given compact set KsubsetB we show that supK|f|leC1infK|f| and supKleft|ablafight|leC2infK|f|, where C1 and C2 depend on K and Z only. In dimension two we specify the dependence of the constants on Z in these inequalities by showing that only the number of nodal domains of u, i.e. the number of connected components of BsetminusZ, plays a role.


This paper is concerned with the study of the ratio of harmonic functions having the same zero set. The first result of the paper is as follows: Assume \(u\) and \(v\) are two harmonic functions in the unit disc of \(\mathbb R^2\) such that their zero sets \(Z(u)\) and \(Z(v)\) coincide. Assume further that the number of nodal domains of \(u\) and \(v\) is less than a fixed number \(N\). Then, for any compact subset \(K\) of the disc, there are two positive constants \(C_i=C_i(K,N)\) such that the ratio \(f=\frac{u}{v}\) satisfies \[ \sup_K |f|\leq C_1\inf_K|f| \] and \[ \sup|\nabla f|\leq C_2\inf_K |\nabla f|. \] The second result of the paper provides some estimates for the derivatives of the ratio \(f\). More precisely, let \(H_Z\) denote the class of all harmonic functions in the unit ball \(B\) of \(\mathbb R^n\) whose zero set is \(Z\subset B\). Then, there exist \(A=A(Z)>0\), \(B=B(Z)>0\) and \(R=R(Z)>0\) such that for any \(u,v\in H_Z\) and any multi index \(\alpha\), the ratio \(f=\frac{u}{v}\) satisfies \[ \sup_{B_{1/2}} |D^\alpha f|\leq\alpha ! AR^{|\alpha|}\inf_{B_{1/2}}|f|. \]











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