Elliptic unique continuation below the Lipschitz threshold

Abstract

In this article, we investigate unique continuation principles for solutions $u$ of uniformly elliptic equations of the form $-\mathrm{div}(A \nabla u) = 0$ when $A$ is less regular than Lipschitz. For general matrices $A$, we prove that strong unique continuation holds provided that $A$ has modulus of continuity $\omega$ satisfying the Osgood condition $\int_0^1 \omega(t)^{-1}dt = \infty$, plus some other mild hypotheses. Along with the counterexamples of Mandache, this shows that the sharp condition on $A$ that guarantees unique continuation is essentially that $A$ is log-Lipschitz.