Degenerate linear parabolic equations in divergence form on the upper half space

Abstract

We study a class of second-order degenerate linear parabolic equations in divergence form in ( − ∞ , T ) × R + d (-\infty , T) \times {\mathbb {R}}^d_+ with homogeneous Dirichlet boundary condition on ( − ∞ , T ) × ∂ R + d (-\infty , T) \times \partial {\mathbb {R}}^d_+ , where R + d = { x ∈ R d : x d > 0 } {\mathbb {R}}^d_+ = \{x \in {\mathbb {R}}^d: x_d>0\} and T ∈ ( − ∞ , ∞ ] T\in {(-\infty , \infty ]} is given. The coefficient matrices of the equations are the product of μ ( x d ) \mu (x_d) and bounded uniformly elliptic matrices, where μ ( x d ) \mu (x_d) behaves like x d α x_d^\alpha for some given α ∈ ( 0 , 2 ) \alpha \in (0,2) , which are degenerate on the boundary { x d = 0 } \{x_d=0\} of the domain. Our main motivation comes from the analysis of degenerate viscous Hamilton-Jacobi equations. Under a partially VMO assumption on the coefficients, we obtain the well-posedness and regularity of solutions in weighted Sobolev spaces. Our results can be readily extended to systems.