Regularity of almost periodic solutions of Poisson's equation

TL;DR

This paper proves that almost periodic solutions of Poisson's equation, initially defined as bounded generalized functions, are actually bounded, continuous, and almost periodic, with their derivatives sharing these properties, extending previous results.

Contribution

It relaxes the boundedness assumption to boundedness in the sense of distributions and proves the regularity and almost periodicity of solutions and their derivatives.

Findings

Solutions are bounded, continuous, and almost periodic.

Derivatives of solutions are also bounded, continuous, and almost periodic.

Representation formulas using Green's function are extended for distributional solutions.

Abstract

This paper discusses some regularity of almost periodic solutions of the Poisson's equation $-\Delta u = f$ in $\mathbb{R}^n$, where $f$ is an almost periodic function. It has been proved by Sibuya [Almost periodic solutions of Poisson's equation. Proc. Amer. Math. Soc., 28:195--198, 1971.] that if $u$ is a bounded continuous function and solves the Poisson's equation in the distribution sense, then $u$ is an almost periodic function. In this work, we relax the assumption of the usual boundedness into boundedness in the sense of distribution which we refer to as a bounded generalized function. The set of bounded generalized functions are wider than the set of usual bounded functions. Then, upon assuming that $u$ is a bounded generalized function and solves the Poisson's equation in the distribution sense, we prove that this solution is bounded in the usual sense, continuous and almost periodic. Moreover, we show that the first partial derivatives of the solution $\partial u/ \partial x_i$, $i=1, \ldots, n$, are also continuous, bounded, and almost periodic functions. The technique is based on extending a representation formula using Green's function for Poisson's equation for solutions in the distribution sense. Some useful properties of distributions are also shown that can be used to study other elliptic problems.