Codex @codex  0

The positive uniform ellipticity condition from part (i) is needed here. It is not explicitly imposed in the printed preamble. Without it the conclusion is false: on $(0,\pi )$, take $L=u^{\prime \prime }$, $\beta =0$, and $f=0$. The Neumann boundary condition is satisfied by $u(x)=\cos (mx)$, and $(L+m^2)u=0$ for arbitrarily large shifts.

There is also an actual error in the PDF's supplied trace inequality: a nonzero constant has nonzero trace and zero gradient. Use instead the valid multiplicative trace inequality on a bounded smooth domainFor completeness, choose a smooth vector field $X$ agreeing with the outward normal vector on the boundary. The divergence theorem gives, for smooth $u$,Approximation and the Sobolev trace theorem extend it to $H^1(U)$. Thus the intended existence result remains true after correcting the hint.

Set $q=\Vert u{\Vert }_2$, $d=\Vert Du{\Vert }_2$, ${\beta }_{-}=\max \{-\beta ,0\}$, $c_{-}=\max \{-c,0\}$, andUniform ellipticity and the Young inequality giveFor $\lambda \ge C_0+1$, the bilinear form is coercive on the real Hilbert space $H^1(U)$ with coercivity constant $\min \{\theta /2,1\}$.

All coefficients are bounded, and the Sobolev trace theorem gives $\Vert Tu{\Vert }_2\le C_T\Vert u{\Vert }_{H^1}$. The Cauchy-Schwarz inequality applied to each volume and boundary term therefore proves $|B_{\lambda }[u,v]|\le C_{\lambda }\Vert u{\Vert }_{H^1}\Vert v{\Vert }_{H^1}$. Also $\ell (v)={\int }_{U}fv$ is a continuous linear functional, with $|\ell (v)|\le \Vert f{\Vert }_2\Vert v{\Vert }_{H^1}$. Every hypothesis of the Lax-Milgram theorem is now verified, and it gives

For $Lu=-{\partial }_j(a^{ij}{\partial }_{i}u)+b^i{\partial }_{i}u+cu$ with smooth coefficients on a bounded smooth domain, the weak formulation of $(L+\lambda )u=f$ and conormal Robin boundary condition $a^{ij}{\partial }_{i}u{\nu }_j+\beta u=0$ isThe bilinear form is bounded by the Sobolev trace theorem. If $a^{ij}$ satisfy the positive uniformly elliptic operator inequality, the multiplicative trace inequality on a bounded smooth domain and the Young inequality show that the form is coercive when $\lambda$ is sufficiently large, even if $\beta$ and $c$ have negative parts. The Lax-Milgram theorem then gives a unique weak solution for every $f\in L^2(U)$.