Nonregular Boundary Value Problem for the Cauchy-Riemann Operator ()
1. Introduction
Most first order linear differential operators of geometric origin are Dirac operators. Dirac operators on Riemannian manifolds are of fundamental importance in differential geometry. A
-matrix D of first order scalar differential operators with constant coefficients in
is said to be a Dirac type operator, if
, where
is the identity
-matrix,
the (non-positive) Laplace operator in
, and
is the formal adjoint of D. As usual, we denote by
the principal symbol of D. The rank of this matrix is equal to k for all
. It follows that every Dirac type operator is overdetermined elliptic. For
, such operators are called elliptic in the classical literature.
In this paper, we firstly restrict our discussion to a boundary value problem related to the Cauchy-Riemann operator, which is a Dirac type operator. A similar work has been done by [1] for the Fueter-operator, but using a cohomology-method. When studying a boundary value problem, we usually look for conditions which guarantee that the solution exists, is unique and depends continuously on the problem data. Let
be a domain with smooth boundary. Given functions
and
, find a solution u to
in
, whose first component coincides with
on the boundary of
, and where D is the Cauchy-Riemann operator.
It is important to point out that no attempt has been made here to develop any general theory. The Atiyah-Patodi-Singer index theorem drew mathematicians’ attention to the so-called spectral boundary conditions for Dirac operators, thus highlighting an idea of Calderón (1963). For an excellent exposition of spectral elliptic boundary problems for Dirac operators, we refer to [2].
The scheme of the article can be declined in the following way: In Section 2, we show that boundary value problem related to the Cauchy-Riemann operator in the plane satisfies the Lopatinskii condition. The paragraph Section 3 is devoted to proving a necessary condition to the existence of a solution to our problem being our main result. To this end, finding a compatible complex to
in
and
on the boundary of
will be highlighted in Section 4. Before coming to some generalisations in Section 6, the corresponding Hodge theory to our problem will be handled in Section 5.
2. A Classical Problem
Suppose
is a bounded domain with smooth boundary in the complex plane
. Identifying
with
under the complex structure
, we consider the inhomogeneous system
(2.1)
for an unknown function
in
, satisfying the boundary condition
(2.2)
where
and
are prescribed functions in
and on
, respectively. Note that (2.1) just amounts to the inhomogeneous Cauchy-Riemann system in the plane.
When assuming
and
and looking for a solution
, one easily verifies that this boundary value problem is Fredholm for each
. Since the Fredholm property is actually equivalent to the ellipticity, we may deduce that the problem (2.1), (2.2) fulfills the Lopatinskii condition. However, these arguments are opposite to what the Lopatinskii condition is aimed at. We present a direct proof.
Theorem 2.1. The boundary value problem (2.1), (2.2) satisfies the Lopatinskii condition.
Proof. The Lopatinskii condition is local, and so it suffices to verify it in a small neighbourhood of any point
. Since the boundary of
is smooth, there is a conformal mapping of
, with
small enough, to the upper half-plane
, such that the curve
is mapped into the
-axis, which is due to the Riemann theorem. Moreover, the Cauchy-Riemann system survives under conformal mappings. Hence, we can assume without restriction of generality that
is the upper half-plane. For each fixed
, we apply the Fourier transformation in
to both Equation (2.1) and boundary condition (2.2). This gives
(2.3)
for all
as well as an initial condition
, the “hat” meaning Fourier transformation in
. From this we read off the boundary symbol of our problem, namely
(2.4)
where
is the space of all rapidly decreasing functions on the half-axis
with values in
, and
(2.5)
with
.
The Lopatinskii condition just amounts to saying that (2.4) is a bijective mapping for all
. There is no loss of generality in assuming that
. The general solution of the homogeneous system
for
with initial condition
has the form
(2.6)
being an arbitrary constant. If we require a solution in
, we have the only choice for the constant
, namely
. This proves the injectivity of (2.4).
To show that (2.4) is surjective for
, we fix
. An easy computation shows that
(2.7)
is a general solution to the system
for
with initial data
. This solution is parametrised by a constant
and it fails to belong to
for an arbitrary choice of
. However, there is a unique constant
for which it is the case. Indeed, the sum of the last two terms on the right-hand side of (2.7) is
as is easy to verify. Choose
in such a way that the first term would vanish at infinity, i.e.
(2.8)
Then it becomes
which is a rapidly decreasing function of
. Since the second term is rapidly decreasing, the surjectivity follows. ¨
The proof of Theorem 2.1 shows that the verification of the Lopatinskii condition is actually as hard as the construction of a parametrix to the boundary value problem.
3. Existence of Solution
Let D be the Cauchy-Riemann operator with constant coefficients in
, thus satisfying
.
Suppose
is a bounded domain with smooth boundary in
and f a given function on
with values in
of Sobolev class
, s being a natural number. We will write
for
if no confusion can arise. Consider the inhomogeneous nonlinear Dirac type equation
for an unknown function
.
The operator D is elliptic, and so all generalised solutions of
are in fact locally in the space
. We interpret a solution u as a column of Sobolev functions on
, i.e.
where
is a function on
with real values and
takes its values in
.
The determination of a solution u of
by means of its “scalar” component
is a problem going back to the classical result of the reconstruction of a holomorphic function from its real part. It is studied in [3], cf. Section 1.2.5. We strengthen this problem in the following way. Let
be a prescribed function on the boundary of
. Find a solution u to
in
, such that
on
.
We first find a necessary condition for the solvability of this problem. For convenience of reference we designate it as
(3.1)
cf. (2.1), (2.2). Note that in one dimension (3.1) is precisely the Cauchy problem for the Dirac type equation
.
Write
, where
is the first column of the matrix D and
the complementary-matrix of D. Since
it follows that
(3.2)
The first and the last equalities of (3.2) imply that both
and
are Dirac type operators.
Lemma 3.1. For a function
to be a solution of (3.1) it is necessary that
satisfy
(3.3)
Proof. The equality
is obviously equivalent to the equality
in
. Applying the operator
to both sides of the latter equality, we obtain, by (3.2),
and this is precisely the assertion of the lemma.
Hence,
should be a solution of the Dirichlet problem (3.3) in
with given data
and
. Since the Dirichlet problem is uniquely solvable, we will assume from now on that the function
is determined from (3.3). We are thus left with the task of finding the remaining components
of u, namely to solving
in the domain of
.
To this end, we consider in Section 4 the elliptic complex related to our Cauchy-Riemann operator
4. A Compatibility Complex
Let us state our lemma.
Lemma 4.1. The differential operators
and
fit together to form an elliptic complex over
(4.1)
Proof. The Laplacian
of (4.1) at step 0 is elliptic, for
according to (3.2).
Since D is a square matrix of scalar differential operators with constant coefficients, we deduce that
Hence it follows that the Laplacian
of complex (4.1) at step 1 is elliptic.
Finally, the Laplacian
of (4.1) at step 2 is elliptic, for
by (3.2). ¨
5. Hodge Theory
The Hodge theory is a very important technical tool for solving partial differential equations, in particular for solving Neumann problems.
In this section, we define two very important spaces before considering a “weak version” of the Neumann problem for our elliptic complex (6.2), namely
and
The spaces
and
are called Neumann and Harmonic spaces, respectively.
By
and
are meant the Cauchy data of u on
, with respect to the differential operators
, and
, respectively, cf. Section 3.2.2 in [3].
Moreover, we precise that for all
,
on
, and
on
, where
is the outward normal vector of the boundary of
at a point
.
The Neumann problem for complex (6.2) on the manifold
in the
setting consists in the following:
(NP): Let be
in
. Find a
to
(Solvability): We say that the Neumann problem related to our complex is solvable at step-1, if:
(1)
is of finite dimension
(2) The equation
has a solution
for each
with
It is a well known result that Neumann problems are solvable for certain classes of manifolds
, namely for manifolds which are strictly pseudoconvex with respect to the considered complex.
We now state the Hodge theory theorem related to our complex
Theorem 5.1. Let
be a strict pseudoconvex domain. There exist continuous operator
and
such that
(1)
for each
(2) If
and
, then
Proof. cf. [4]
In Section 3, we were left with the task of finding the remaining components
of u, namely to solving
(5.1)
in the domain of
.
We now derive a sufficient condition for the solvability of (5.1)
Theorem 5.2. For Equation (5.1) to be solvable, it is sufficient that
for each
, where
and
are called the Dirichlet and Neumann data, respectively, cf. [5], and ds is the surface measure.
Proof. Using the Green formula cf. Section 3.2.2 in [5], we obtain that for
Setting
, and from the Hodge theory, we readily get that
allowing to choose
as. ¨
6. Some Generalisations
Let D be a general Dirac operator in given by a -matrix. Write
where A is the first column of the matrix D and C the complementary -matrix of scalar differential operators.
Since
it follows that
(6.1)
We are now in a position to state the generalised lemma which is one of our results.
Lemma 6.1. The differential operators A and C fit together to form an elliptic complex over
(6.2)
Proof. The Laplacian of (6.2) at step 0 is elliptic, for
according to (6.1).
Since D is a square matrix of scalar differential operators with constant coefficients, we deduce that
Hence it follows that the Laplacian of complex (6.2) at step 1 is elliptic.
Finally, the Laplacian of (6.2) at step 2 is elliptic, for
by (6.1). ¨
7. Conclusion
In this paper, we proposed a method solving a nonregular boundary value problem for the Cauchy-Riemann operator in. Nonregular in the sense, that only the component is given on the whole boundary of our domain. We even proposed an exolicit solution to our problem. The next work will be to build an explicit formula for the Laplacian of (6.2) allowing us to construct a fundamental solution of convolution type for the complex (6.2). It is precisely a homotopy formula for the complex (6.2).