H-log spaces of continuous functions, potentials, and elliptic boundary value problems

Abstract

In these notes we study a family of Banach spaces, denoted $\, D^{0,\,\al}(\Ov)\,,$ $\,\al \in\,\R^+\,,$ and called H-log spaces. For $\,0<\,\la\leq\,1\,,$ one has $ C^{0,\,\la}(\Ov)\subset D^{0,\,\al}(\Ov) \subset\,C(\Ov)\,,$ with compact embedding. These spaces present the following "intermediate" regularity behavior. Solutions $u$ of second order linear elliptic boundary value problems, under "external forces" $\,f\in\, D^{0,\,\al}(\Ov)\,$ for some $\,\al>\,1\,,$ satisfy $\,\na^2\,u\in\, D^{0,\,\al-\,1}(\Ov)\,$. This result is optimal, since $\,\na^2\,u\in\, D^{0,\,β}(\Ov)\,,$ for some $\,β>\,\al-1\,,$ is false in general. We present a preliminary study on this subject.