Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2017/iii/paper-105/2/c/solution

Test the weak formulation with itself. Uniform ellipticity and the Cauchy-Schwarz inequality give
The Poincaré inequality for the bounded shell with zero trace gives . If the gradient is nonzero, divide to obtain ; if it is zero the estimate is immediate and the zero trace forces . Thus
The constant depends on the shell and , not on or . Subtracting two solutions with the same forcing gives a zero-forcing solution and hence proves uniqueness. This is a coercive energy argument, not an appeal to real analytic Cauchy solvability.

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