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of the proof consists in showing that this functional is continuous, i.e.

,
that there is a distribution u E fi.&'(R") that satisfies
(10) u(P(D)¢) = ¢(0) (¢ E fi.&(R")),
because then the distribution E = u satisfies

(P(D)E)(¢) = E(P( - D)¢) = u((P( - D)¢) V )


= u(P(D)({J) = ({J(O) = ¢(0) = b(¢),
so that P(D)E {>, as desired.
=

Lemma 8.3, applied to P¢ t/1, yields


A

(1 1) I cj;(t) l < Ar - N l I �(t + rw) I da.(w) (t E R").


Jr.
By the inversion theorem, ¢(0) fR• ¢ dmn . Thus ( 1 1), (2), and (9) give
=

(12) I ¢(0) I < Ar - N II P(D)¢ 11 (¢ E fi.&(R")).


Let Y be the subspace of fi.&(R") that consists of the functions
P(D)¢, ¢ E fi.&(R"). By (12), the Hahn-Banach theorem 3.3 shows that
the linear functional that is defined on Y by P(D)¢ -+ ¢(0) extends to a
linear functional u on E!&(R") that satisfies (10) as well as
( 1 3) (t/1 E fi.&(R")).
By (3), u E fi.&'(R"). This completes the proof. Ill/
Elliptic Equations
8.6 Introduction If u is a twice continuously differentiable function in
some open set n c R 2 that satisfies the Laplace equation
82u 82u
(1) 0,
ax 2 + 8y 2
=

then it is very well known that u is actually in C00(Q), simply because every
real harmonic function in n is (locally) the real part of a holomorphic func­
tion. Any theorem of this type--one which asserts that every solution of a
certain differential equation has stronger smoothness properties than is a
priori evident-is called a regularity theorem.
We shall give a proof of a rather general regularity theorem for elliptic
partial differential equations. The term " elliptic " will be defined presently.
It may be of interest to see, first of all, that the equation
82 u
(2) 0
ax ay
=

behaves quite differently from (1), since it is satisfied by every function u of


the form u(x, y) = f(y), where f is any differentiable function. In fact, if (2) is

( )
interpreted to mean
j_ au
(3) = 0,
ay ax
then / can be a perfectly arbitrary function.

8.7 Definitions Suppose n is open in R ", N is a positive integer,


fa E C00(!l) for every multi-index a. with I a. I < N, and at least one fa with
I a. I = N is not identically 0. These data determine a linear differential oper­
ator
(1 )

which acts on distributions u E .@'(Q) by


(2) Lu L fa Da u .
I a I ,;; N
=

The order of L is N. The operator


(3) L fa Da
lai = N
is the principal part of L. The characteristic polynomial of L is
(4) p(x, y) = L fa(x)ya (x E Q, y E R").
l ai = N
This is a homogeneous polynomial of degree N in the variables y =
(y l , . . . , y.), with coefficients in C00(Q).
The operator L is said to be elliptic if p(x, y) # 0 for every x E n and
for every y E R ", except, of course, for y = 0. Note that ellipticity is defined
in terms of the principal part of L; the lower-order terms that appear in (1)
play no role.
For example, the characteristic polynomial of the Laplacian

(5)

- A
is p(x, y) = (yf + · · · + y;), so that is elliptic.
On the other hand, if L = a 2jax 1 ax 2 , then p(x, y) = - y 1 y 2 , and L is
not elliptic.
The main result that we are aiming at (Theorem 8.12) involves some
special spaces of tempered distributions, which we now describe.

8.8 Sobolev spaces Associate to each real number s a positive measure


f.ls on R " by setting

(1) df.15(y) = (1 + I y 1 2)5 dm.(y).

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