 Strict positivity implies coercivity for an elliptic Dirichlet form

Let $B[u,v]={\int }_U{a}^{ij}{\partial }_{i}u{\partial }_{j}v+cuv$ on $H_0^1(U)$ for a bounded smooth domain, smooth symmetric uniformly positive coefficients, and bounded real $c$. If $B[u,u]>0$ for every nonzero $u$, then $B[u,u]\ge \alpha \Vert u{\Vert }_{H^1}^2$ for some $\alpha >0$. If this failed, choose $\Vert u_j{\Vert }_{H^1}=1$ with $B[u_j,u_j]\to 0$. The Rellich-Kondrachov compactness theorem gives a subsequence weakly converging in $H_0^1$ and strongly in $L^2$. The principal energy has weak lower semicontinuity, and the potential term converges, so strict positivity forces the limit to be zero. Uniform ellipticity then gives $\Vert D{u}_j{\Vert }_2\to 0$, contradicting normalization. Merely being a positive semidefinite operator is insufficient: $-\Delta -{\lambda }_1$ has a nonzero Dirichlet eigenfunction of zero energy.