Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2008/iii/paper-13/2/b/solution

Choose an upper ellipticity bound for the symmetric coefficient matrix, possible because its entries are bounded. Then
The Poincaré inequality on a bounded open set for zero-boundary functions states . Consequently
The symmetric positive bilinear form is therefore an inner product, and its square-root norm is equivalent to the usual Sobolev norm. Its triangle inequality follows from the Cauchy-Schwarz inequality for that inner product. completeness of in its original norm makes it a Hilbert space in the norm as well.
The linear functional is bounded, since
The Hilbert-space Riesz representation theorem states that every bounded linear functional is the inner product with a unique element. Applied in the inner product it gives a unique with for all , which is precisely the weak-solution identity. Alternatively uniqueness follows directly by testing the difference of two solutions with itself: . Thus .

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