An Endpoint Alexandrov Bakelman Pucci Estimate in the Plane

Abstract

The classical Alexandrov–Bakelman–Pucci estimate for the Laplacian states

$$\begin{eqnarray}\max _{x\in \unicode[STIX]{x03A9}}|u(x)|\leqslant \max _{x\in \unicode[STIX]{x2202}\unicode[STIX]{x03A9}}|u(x)|+c_{s,n}\text{diam}(\unicode[STIX]{x03A9})^{2-\frac{n}{s}}\Vert \unicode[STIX]{x0394}u\Vert _{L^{s}(\unicode[STIX]{x03A9})},\end{eqnarray}$$

where $\unicode[STIX]{x03A9}\subset \mathbb{R}^{n}$, $u\in C^{2}(\unicode[STIX]{x03A9})\cap C(\overline{\unicode[STIX]{x03A9}})$ and $s>n/2$. The inequality fails for $s=n/2$. A Sobolev embedding result of Milman and Pustylnik, originally phrased in a slightly different context, implies an endpoint inequality: if $n\geqslant 3$ and $\unicode[STIX]{x03A9}\subset \mathbb{R}^{n}$ is bounded, then

$$\begin{eqnarray}\max _{x\in \unicode[STIX]{x03A9}}|u(x)|\leqslant \max _{x\in \unicode[STIX]{x2202}\unicode[STIX]{x03A9}}|u(x)|+c_{n}\Vert \unicode[STIX]{x0394}u\Vert _{L^{\frac{n}{2},1}(\unicode[STIX]{x03A9})},\end{eqnarray}$$

where $L^{p,q}$ is the Lorentz space refinement of $L^{p}$. This inequality fails for $n=2$, and we prove a sharp substitute result: there exists $c>0$ such that for all $\unicode[STIX]{x03A9}\subset \mathbb{R}^{2}$ with finite measure,

$$\begin{eqnarray}\max _{x\in \unicode[STIX]{x03A9}}|u(x)|\leqslant \max _{x\in \unicode[STIX]{x2202}\unicode[STIX]{x03A9}}|u(x)|+c\max _{x\in \unicode[STIX]{x03A9}}\int _{y\in \unicode[STIX]{x03A9}}\max \left\{1,\log \left(\frac{|\unicode[STIX]{x03A9}|}{\Vert x-y\Vert ^{2}}\right)\right\}|\unicode[STIX]{x0394}u(y)|dy.\end{eqnarray}$$

This is somewhat dual to the classical Trudinger–Moser inequality; we also note that it is sharper than the usual estimates given in Orlicz spaces; the proof is rearrangement-free. The Laplacian can be replaced by any uniformly elliptic operator in divergence form.