Sectorial forms and degenerate differential operators

Abstract

If $a$ is a densely defined sectorial form in a Hilbert space which is possibly not closable, then we associate in a natural way a holomorphic semigroup generator with $a$. This allows us to remove in several theorems of semigroup theory the assumption that the form is closed or symmetric. Many examples are provided, ranging from complex sectorial differential operators, to Dirichlet-to-Neumann operators and operators with Robin or Wentzell boundary conditions.