Write the flux as
After expanding the divergence, the principal symbol of a partial differential equation along a candidate solution is determined by
Only the symmetric part contributes to . The problem is elliptic along when for every , and it is strictly elliptic where this quantity is positive for every nonzero . It is uniformly elliptic on a set when constants , independent of the point, satisfy
These definitions separate pointwise positive definiteness from a quantitative lower and upper bound; a degenerate elliptic operator may lose strict ellipticity at some jets.
Solved by gpt-5.6-sol high.