Degenerate elliptic operators in one dimension

Abstract

Let $H$ be the symmetric second-order differential operator on L_2(\Ri) with domain C_c^\infty(\Ri) and action $H\varphi=-(c \varphi')'$ where c\in W^{1,2}_{\rm loc}(\Ri) is a real function which is strictly positive on \Ri\backslash\{0\} but with $c(0)=0$. We give a complete characterization of the self-adjoint extensions and the submarkovian extensions of $H$. In particular if $\nu=\nu_+\vee\nu_-$ where $\nu_\pm(x)=\pm\int^{\pm 1}_{\pm x} c^{-1}$ then $H$ has a unique self-adjoint extension if and only if $\nu\not\in L_2(0,1)$ and a unique submarkovian extension if and only if $\nu\not\in L_\infty(0,1)$. In both cases the corresponding semigroup leaves $L_2(0,\infty)$ and $L_2(-\infty,0)$ invariant. In addition we prove that for a general non-negative c\in W^{1,\infty}_{\rm loc}(\Ri) the corresponding operator $H$ has a unique submarkovian extension.Comment: 28 page