arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to Derek W. Robinson.
If $X$ is a non-degenerate vector field on ${\bf R}$ and $H=-X^2$ we examine conditions for the closure of $H$ to generate a continuous semigroup on $L_\infty$ which extends to the $L_p$-spaces. We give an example which cannot be extended and an example which extends but for which the real part of the generator on $L_2$ is not lower semibounded.
It is shown that the theory of real symmetric second-order elliptic operators in divergence form on $\Ri^d$ can be formulated in terms of a regular strongly local Dirichlet form irregardless of the order of degeneracy. The behaviour of the corresponding evolution semigroup $S_t$ can be described in terms of a function $(A,B) \mapsto d(A ;B)\in[0,\infty]$ over pairs of measurable subsets of $\Ri^d$. Then \[ |(ϕ_A,S_tϕ_B)|\leq e^{-d(A;B)^2(4t)^{-1}}\|ϕ_A\|_2\|ϕ_B\|_2 \] for all $t>0$ and all $ϕ_A\in L_2(A)$, $ϕ_B\in L_2(B)$. Moreover $S_tL_2(A)\subseteq L_2(A)$ for all $t>0$ if and only if $d(A ;A^c)=\infty$ where $A^c$ denotes the complement of $A$.
We establish the short-time asymptotic behaviour of the Markovian semigroups associated with strongly local Dirichlet forms under very general hypotheses. Our results apply to a wide class of strongly elliptic, subelliptic and degenerate elliptic operators. In the degenerate case the asymptotics incorporate possible non-ergodicity.
Let $S=\{S_t\}_{t\geq0}$ be the semigroup generated on $L_2(\Ri^d)$ by a self-adjoint, second-order, divergence-form, elliptic operator $H$ with Lipschitz continuous coefficients. Further let $Ω$ be an open subset of $\Ri^d$ with Lipschitz continuous boundary $\partialΩ$. We prove that $S$ leaves $L_2(Ω)$ invariant if, and only if, the capacity of the boundary with respect to $H$ is zero or if, and only if, the energy flux across the boundary is zero. The global result is based on an analogous local result.
We consider properties of second-order operators $H = -\sum^d_{i,j=1} \partial_i \, c_{ij} \, \partial_j$ on $\Ri^d$ with bounded real symmetric measurable coefficients. We assume that $C = (c_{ij}) \geq 0$ almost everywhere, but allow for the possibility that $C$ is singular. We associate with $H$ a canonical self-adjoint viscosity operator $H_0$ and examine properties of the viscosity semigroup $S^{(0)}$ generated by $H_0$. The semigroup extends to a positive contraction semigroup on the $L_p$-spaces with $p \in [1,\infty]$. We establish that it conserves probability, satisfies $L_2$~off-diagonal bounds and that the wave equation associated with $H_0$ has finite speed of propagation. Nevertheless $S^{(0)}$ is not always strictly positive because separation of the system can occur even for subelliptic operators. This demonstrates that subelliptic semigroups are not ergodic in general and their kernels are neither strictly positive nor Hölder continuous. In particular one can construct examples for which both upper and lower Gaussian bounds fail even with coefficients in $C^{2-\varepsilon}(\Ri^d)$ with $\varepsilon > 0$.
We consider second-order partial differential operators $H$ in divergence form on $\Ri^d$ with a positive-semidefinite, symmetric, matrix $C$ of real $L_\infty$-coefficients and establish that $H$ is strongly elliptic if and only if the associated semigroup kernel satisfies local lower bounds, or, if and only if the kernel satisfies Gaussian upper and lower bounds.
It is shown that certain quasi-free flows on the Cuntz algebra $O_\infty$ have the Rohlin property and therefore are cocycle-conjugate with each other. This, in particular, shows that any unital separable nuclear purely infinite simple C*-algebra has a Rohlin flow.
We demonstrate that the structure of complex second-order strongly elliptic operators $H$ on ${\bf R}^d$ with coefficients invariant under translation by ${\bf Z}^d$ can be analyzed through decomposition in terms of versions $H_z$, $z\in{\bf T}^d$, of $H$ with $z$-periodic boundary conditions acting on $L_2({\bf I}^d)$ where ${\bf I}=[0,1>$. If the semigroup $S$ generated by $H$ has a Hölder continuous integral kernel satisfying Gaussian bounds then the semigroups $S^z$ generated by the $H_z$ have kernels with similar properties and $z\mapsto S^z$ extends to a function on ${\bf C}^d\setminus\{0\}$ which is analytic with respect to the trace norm. The sequence of semigroups $S^{(m),z}$ obtained by rescaling the coefficients of $H_z$ by $c(x)\to c(mx)$ converges in trace norm to the semigroup $\hat{S}^z$ generated by the homogenization $\hat{H}_z$ of $H_z$. These convergence properties allow asymptotic analysis of the spectrum of $H$.
We show that invariant states of C*-dynamical systems can be approximated in the weak*-topology by invariant pure states, or almost invariant pure states, under various circumstances.