Boundary ellipticity and limiting $L^1$-estimates on halfspaces

Abstract: We identify necessary and sufficient conditions on $k$th order differential operators $\mathbb{A}$ in terms of a fixed halfspace $H^+\subset\mathbb{R}^n$ such that the Gagliardo--Nirenberg--Sobolev inequality $$ |D^{k-1}u|_{\mathrm{L}^{\frac{n}{n-1}}(H^+)}\leq c|\mathbb{A} u|_{\mathrm{L}^1(H^+)}\quad\text{for }u\in\mathrm{C}^\infty_c (\mathbb{R}^{n},V) $$ holds. This comes as a consequence of sharp trace theorems on $H=\partial H^+$.