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Two bounded harmonic functions continuous to the quadrant edges with the same Dirichlet boundary conditions are equal. Their difference is bounded and zero on both axes. Odd reflection across each axis gives a bounded harmonic extension away from the corner; the removable singularity for a bounded harmonic function fills in that corner. The harmonic Liouville theorem makes that extension constant, and oddness makes the constant zero. This does not exclude unbounded examples such as the zero-boundary harmonic growth in a quadrant.

A bounded entire harmonic function satisfies $u(x)={\mathbb{E}}_{x}u(B_t)$ because $u(B)$ is a bounded local martingale. The Gaussian heat kernel has a directional derivative with $L^1$ norm $\sqrt{2/\pi }/\sqrt{t}$. Consequently $|u(x)-u(y)|\le \Vert u{\Vert }_{\infty }\sqrt{2/\pi }|x-y|/\sqrt{t}$; letting $t\to \infty$ proves the harmonic Liouville theorem in every dimension.

A harmonic function on ${\mathbb{R}}^2\setminus \{0\}$ bounded on one side is constant. Shift and change sign to make it nonnegative. Its circular mean has the form $a\log r+b$; positivity for every $r>0$ forces $a=0$. For $|x|=r$, the mean value property for harmonic functions bounds its value by the mean integral over $r/2<|z|<3r/2$, giving at most $8b$. A removable singularity for a bounded harmonic function fills the origin, and the harmonic Liouville theorem finishes the proof. The dimensional distinction matters: $|x{|}^{2-n}$ is a positive nonconstant harmonic function on punctured ${\mathbb{R}}^n$ for $n\ge 3$.

For a harmonic function $u$ on $\mathbb{C}\cong {\mathbb{R}}^2$, the Itô formula givesStop on leaving increasing discs and at increasing deterministic times. On each such interval the gradient is bounded, so the stochastic integral is a martingale. This proves that $u(B)$ is a continuous local martingale.

If $|u|\le K$, this is a bounded local martingale and hence a true martingale. Start Brownian motion at an arbitrary $z$. Its Gaussian heat kernel givesFor a unit vector $e$, ${\partial }_e{p}_t(v)=-(e\cdot v)p_t(v)/t$, so $\int |{\partial }_e{p}_t(v)|dv=\sqrt{2/\pi }/\sqrt{t}$. Integrating the directional derivative along the segment from $z$ to $w$ yieldsLetting $t\to \infty$ gives the harmonic Liouville theorem:This Gaussian heat-kernel proof of the harmonic Liouville theorem uses the bounded martingale identity established above.

Interpret the malformed printed domain inequality as the first quadrant $x>0,y>0$, as indicated by the two axis boundary conditions. There is also a genuine missing hypothesis: decay of the boundary data does not require the harmonic function itself to be bounded. For zero data, both $q=0$ and $q=xy$ satisfy the Laplace equation and both edge values, but the Wirtinger derivative of the latter isThus the data do not determine an arbitrary solution's derivative without a growth restriction. We derive the integral representation for the bounded solution, which is also the standard decaying solution when the continuous edge data decay. Any other admissible unbounded solution can differ by a zero-boundary harmonic function.

The conformal map $w=z^2$ sends the quadrant bijectively to the complex upper half-plane: the positive real axis maps to $s>0$, and the positive imaginary axis maps to $s<0$. Define its real-axis boundary function byThe compatibility at the corner makes $f$ continuous there. The Dirichlet Poisson integral in a quadrant follows from the upper-half-plane Poisson kernel:It is bounded by the supremum of the bounded edge data, and the kernel's approximate identity property supplies both Dirichlet boundary conditions. More explicitly, for $z^2=a+ic$, where $a=x^2-y^2$ and $c=2xy>0$, this integral isIt displays directly which part of the real-line boundary corresponds to each original axis.

To obtain its derivative, first take real data and use the Schwarz integral formula. A holomorphic function whose real part is the Poisson solution in the $w$-plane isThe regularizing subtraction is independent of $w$ and affects only the imaginary normalization; it permits bounded data without an artificial integrability assumption. Then $q=\mathrm{Re}F(z^2)$. By the chain rule and the Wirtinger derivative,The factor is $z$, not $2z$: taking the real part contributes the factor $1/2$ in the complex derivative. Differentiation under the integral sign is justified uniformly on compact interior subsets because the denominator stays away from the real boundary and decays quadratically at infinity. Splitting the real integral at zero and substituting $s=r^2$ or $s=-r^2$ gives the holomorphic derivative of a quadrant Dirichlet solution:This converges for bounded data, and in particular for the stated sufficiently decaying data. No interior pole is encountered since $\mathrm{Im}(z^2)=2xy>0$. For complex-valued data the same formula holds by applying the real-data construction separately to their real and imaginary parts and using linearity.

An equivalent form, often convenient when the data's derivatives decay, comes from integration by parts. Sincethe two endpoint terms are $-g_2(0)/z^2$ and $+g_1(0)/z^2$. They cancel by the specified compatibility, leavingThis is the harmonic quadrant solution from tangential boundary derivatives applied to the actual derivatives $g_1^{\prime },g_2^{\prime }$; the supplied $g_1,g_2$ in this question are boundary values, not derivatives. Omitting those primes would solve a different boundary problem.

For completeness, bounded Dirichlet uniqueness in a quadrant selects the solution just constructed. The difference of two bounded solutions is zero on both axes. Odd reflection across each axis gives a bounded harmonic extension to the punctured plane; the removable singularity for a bounded harmonic function fills the corner. The harmonic Liouville theorem makes the extension constant, and oddness makes it zero. Decaying data give a decaying Poisson extension: split the real-axis integral into a fixed compact interval and a tail with arbitrarily small data; the compact contribution tends to zero as $|z^2|\to \infty$, while the tail is bounded by that small supremum.

As literally printed without boundedness or a growth condition, the most one can assert isThe zero-boundary harmonic growth in a quadrant includes $v=cxy$ and more generally $v=\mathrm{Im}(z^{2m})$. This is an actual nonuniqueness of the printed problem, not a defect in the integral for the normalized bounded solution.

Shift $u$ by a constant and, if necessary, change sign to obtain an entire nonnegative harmonic function $v$. The Harnack inequality for harmonic functions on arbitrarily large balls centred at $x_0$ gives $v(x)\le 3^{n}v(x_0)$ for every $x$. Thus $v$ is globally bounded. The interior derivative estimate for a harmonic function now gives $|Dv(x)|\le C\Vert v{\Vert }_{\infty }/R$ on balls of arbitrarily large radius $R$. Letting $R\to \infty$ proves $Dv=0$, hence $u$ is constant. This proves the one-sided harmonic Liouville theorem in every dimension.

The conclusion holds in dimension two. Shift and change sign to obtain a nonnegative harmonic function $v$. Its circular mean satisfiesHere the angular second derivative in the polar-coordinate Laplacian integrates to zero. Thus $m(r)=a\log r+b$; nonnegativity for every $r>0$ forces $a=0$. For $|x|=r$, the mean value property for harmonic functions and nonnegativity giveThe removable singularity for a bounded harmonic function fills in the origin, and the harmonic Liouville theorem makes the extension constant.

The conclusion fails for $n\ge 3$: $\boxed{u(x)=|x{|}^{2-n}}$ is positive and nonconstant, and its radial Laplacian $u^{\prime \prime }+(n-1)u^{\prime }/r$ vanishes away from zero. For $n=1$, $\boxed{u(x)=|x|}$ is a nonconstant function bounded below whose second derivative vanishes on both components of the punctured line.

Lift $u$ through the complex exponential by settingThe conformal invariance of harmonicity makes $v$ harmonic. Since $e^{w+2\pi i}=e^w$ and $u(2z)=u(z)$,Thus $v$ is bounded on the compact rectangleand its two periods make it bounded on the whole plane. The harmonic Liouville theorem makes $v$ constant. Since the exponential map is surjective onto ${\mathbb{C}}^{\ast }$, $u$ is constant.

For the requested counterexample after deleting a countable set, takeand let ${\wp }_{\Lambda }$ be the Weierstrass elliptic function for the latticeDefineChanging a branch of the logarithm adds $2\pi i$, a period of ${\wp }_{\Lambda }$, so $u$ is well defined. Its poles project precisely to $S$, and the conformal invariance of harmonicity makes $u$ harmonic away from them. The other period givesMoreover, $z\notin S$ implies $2z\notin S$. Finally, $u$ is nonconstant because as positive real $z\to 1$,which is real and unbounded. This is a scale-periodic harmonic function from an elliptic function.

For each $x$, the bounded local martingale $u(x+B_t)$ is a true martingale. Taking expectations givesfor every $t>0$. Thus $u$ equals its convolution with every heat kernel. The convolution is smooth, so the originally Borel function $u$ is smooth. Differentiating the heat semigroup identity at $t=0$ gives $\Delta u=0$, so $u$ is a bounded harmonic function on the plane. The harmonic Liouville theorem now implies that $u$ is constant.

Every nonconstant harmonic function $u:\mathbb{C}\to \mathbb{R}$ is unbounded above and below by the harmonic Liouville theorem. The intermediate value theorem then gives $u(\mathbb{C})=\mathbb{R}$.