Optimal regularity results in Sobolev-Lorentz spaces for linear elliptic equations with $L^1$- or measure data
It has been well known that if $Ω$ is a bounded $C^1$-domain in $\R^n,\ n \ge 2$, then for every Radon measure $f$ on $Ω$ with finite total variation, there exists a unique weak solution $u\in W_0^{1,1}(Ω)$ of the Poisson equation $-Δu=f$ in $Ω$ satisfying $\nabla u \in L^{n/(n-1),\infty}(Ω;\R^n )$. In this paper, optimal regularity properties of the solution $u$ are established in Sobolev-Lorentz spaces $L_α^{p,q}(Ω)$ of order $ α$ less than but arbitrarily close to $2$. More precisely, for any $0 \le α<1$, we show that $u\in L_{α+1}^{p(α),\infty}(Ω)$, where $p(α)= n/(n-1+α)$. Moreover, using an embedding result for Sobolev-Lorentz spaces $L_α^{p,q}(Ω)$ into classical Besov spaces $B_α^{p,q}(Ω)$, we deduce that $u\in B_{α+1}^{p(α),\infty}(Ω)$. Indeed, these regularity results are proved for solutions of the Dirichlet problems for more general linear elliptic equations with nonhomogeneous boundary data. On the other hand, it is known that if $Ω$ is of class $C^{1,1}$, then for each $G\in L^1 (Ω;\R^n )$ there exists a unique very weak solution $v\in L^{n/(n-1),\infty} (Ω)$ of $-Δv= {\rm div}\, G$ in $Ω$ satisfying the boundary condition $v=0$ in some sense. We prove that $v$ has the optimal regularity property, that is, $v\in L_α^{p(α),\infty}(Ω)\cap B_α^{p(α),\infty}(Ω)$ for every $0 \le α< 1$. This regularity result is also proved for more general equations with nonhomogeneous boundary data.