Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2009/iii/paper-12/4/ii/solution

First perform homogenization of Dirichlet boundary data: put and . Then weakly. Extend both functions oddly across the flat face:
The zero Sobolev trace of makes this odd reflection an function. This can also be seen by approximating by smooth compactly supported functions in and reflecting the approximants. Its norm is times that of , and .
For , the function on the upper half-ball has zero trace on the flat face and vanishes near the curved face, hence is an admissible test. Splitting the integrals over the two half-balls and changing to shows
Thus weakly throughout the full ball; there is no extra distribution on the reflecting face.
Apply part (i) to , restrict to the upper half-ball, and then add . Since , this gives and the second-derivative estimate at a flat Dirichlet boundary
The fixed radii leave distance for the interior estimate, so the constant depends only on dimension.

New to topics? Read the docs here!