Bilateral estimates of solutions to quasilinear elliptic equations with sub-natural growth terms

We study quasilinear elliptic equations of the type - Δ p ⁢ u = σ ⁢ u q + μ {-\Delta_{p}u=\sigma u^{q}+\mu} in ℝ n {\mathbb{R}^{n}} in the case 0 < q < p - 1 {0<q<p-1} , where μ and σ are nonnegative measurable functions, or locally finite measures, and Δ p ⁢ u = div ⁡ ( | ∇ ⁡ u | p - 2 ⁢ ∇ ⁡ u ) {\Delta_{p}u=\operatorname{div}(\lvert\nabla u\rvert^{p-2}\nabla u)} is the p-Laplacian. Similar equations with more general local and nonlocal operators in place of Δ p {\Delta_{p}} are treated as well. We obtain existence criteria and global bilateral pointwise estimates for all positive solutions u: u ⁢ ( x ) ≈ ( 𝐖 p ⁢ σ ⁢ ( x ) ) p - q p - q - 1 + 𝐊 p , q ⁢ σ ⁢ ( x ) + 𝐖 p ⁢ μ ⁢ ( x ) , x ∈ ℝ n , u(x)\approx({\mathbf{W}}_{p}\sigma(x))^{\frac{p-q}{p-q-1}}+{\mathbf{K}}_{p,q}% \sigma(x)+{\mathbf{W}}_{p}\mu(x),\quad x\in\mathbb{R}^{n}, where 𝐖 p {{\mathbf{W}}_{p}} and 𝐊 p , q {{\mathbf{K}}_{p,q}} are, respectively, the Wolff potential and the intrinsic Wolff potential, with the constants of equivalence depending only on p, q, and n. The contributions of μ and σ in these pointwise estimates are totally separated, which is a new phenomenon even when p = 2 {p=2} .

A path integral formulation for particle detectors: the Unruh-DeWitt model as a line defect

Particle detectors are an ubiquitous tool for probing quantum fields in the context of relativistic quantum information (RQI). We formulate the Unruh-DeWitt (UDW) particle detector model in terms of the path integral formalism. The formulation is able to recover the results of the model in general globally hyperbolic spacetimes and for arbitrary detector trajectories. Integrating out the detector’s degrees of freedom yields a line defect that allows one to express the transition probability in terms of Feynman diagrams. Inspired by the light-matter interaction, we propose a gauge invariant detector model whose associated line defect is related to the derivative of a Wilson line. This is another instance where nonlocal operators in gauge theories can be interpreted as physical probes for quantum fields.