Extrapolation of the Dirichlet problem for elliptic equations with complex coefficients

Abstract: In this paper, we prove an extrapolation result for complex coefficient divergence form operators that satisfy a strong ellipticity condition known as $p$-{\it ellipticity}. Specifically, let $\Omega$ be a chord-arc domain in $\mathbb R^n$ and the operator $\mathcal L = \partial_{i}\left(A_{ij}(x)\partial_{j}\right) +B_{i}(x)\partial_{i} $ be elliptic, with $|B_i(x)| \le K\delta(x)^{-1}$ for a small $K$. Let $p_0 = \sup{p>1: A \,\,\text{is}\,\, \text{$p$-elliptic}}$. We establish that if the $L^q$ Dirichlet problem is solvable for $\mathcal L$ for some $1<q< \frac{p_0(n-1)}{(n-2)}$, then the $L^p$ Dirichlet problem is solvable for all $p$ in the range $[q, \frac{p_0(n-1)}{(n-2)})$. In particular, if the matrix $A$ is real, or $n=2$, the $L^p$ Dirichlet problem is solvable for $p$ in the range $[q, \infty)$.