Elliptic Theory for Sets with Higher Co-dimensional Boundaries

Many geometric and analytic properties of sets hinge on the properties of elliptic measure, notoriously missing for sets of higher co-dimension. The aim of this manuscript is to develop a version of elliptic theory, associated to a linear PDE, which ultimately yields a notion analogous to that of the harmonic measure, for sets of codimension higher than 1. To this end, we turn to degenerate elliptic equations. Let Γ ⊂ R n \Gamma \subset \mathbb {R}^n be an Ahlfors regular set of dimension d > n − 1 d>n-1 (not necessarily integer) and Ω = R n ∖ Γ \Omega = \mathbb {R}^n \setminus \Gamma . Let L = − div ⁡ A ∇ L = - \operatorname {div} A\nabla be a degenerate elliptic operator with measurable coefficients such that the ellipticity constants of the matrix A A are bounded from above and below by a multiple of dist ⁡ ( ⋅ , Γ ) d + 1 − n \operatorname {dist}(\cdot , \Gamma )^{d+1-n} . We define weak solutions; prove trace and extension theorems in suitable weighted Sobolev spaces; establish the maximum principle, De Giorgi-Nash-Moser estimates, the Harnack inequality, the Hölder continuity of solutions (inside and at the boundary). We define the Green function and provide the basic set of pointwise and/or L p L^p estimates for the Green function and for its gradient. With this at hand, we define harmonic measure associated to L L , establish its doubling property, non-degeneracy, change-of-the-pole formulas, and, finally, the comparison principle for local solutions. In another article to appear, we will prove that when Γ \Gamma is the graph of a Lipschitz function with small Lipschitz constant, we can find an elliptic operator L L for which the harmonic measure given here is absolutely continuous with respect to the d d -Hausdorff measure on Γ \Gamma and vice versa. It thus extends Dahlberg’s theorem to some sets of codimension higher than 1.

Statistical Hyperbolicity for Harmonic Measure

We consider harmonic measures that arise from random walks on the mapping class group determined by probability distributions that have finite first moments with respect to the Teichmüller metric and whose supports generate nonelementary subgroups. We prove that Teichmüller space with the Teichmüller metric is statistically hyperbolic for such a harmonic measure.