Divergence-form elliptic operator ($Lu=D_i(a^{ij}{D}_{j}u)$)

A divergence-form elliptic operator is $Lu=D_i(a^{ij}{D}_{j}u)$, with bounded measurable coefficients whose symmetric part has a uniform positive lower bound. Its weak formulation involves only first weak derivatives, so differentiability of the coefficients is unnecessary.

For $Lu=D_i(a^{ij}{D}_{j}u)$, a weak supersolution satisfies $Lu\le 0$ as a distribution, equivalently $\int a^{ij}{D}_{j}u{D}_i\varphi \ge 0$ for every nonnegative compactly supported test function $\varphi$. The Weak Harnack inequality applies to nonnegative weak supersolutions with this sign convention.

For the sign convention $Lu=D_i(a^{ij}{D}_{j}u)$, a weak subsolution satisfies $Lu\ge 0$ as a distribution, equivalently $\int a^{ij}{D}_{j}u{D}_i\varphi \le 0$ for every nonnegative compactly supported test function $\varphi$. A weak supersolution has the reversed inequality.