Regularity properties for a class of non-uniformly elliptic Isaacs operators

Abstract

We consider the elliptic differential operator defined as the sum of the minimum and the maximum eigenvalue of the Hessian matrix, which can be viewed as a degenerate elliptic Isaacs operator, in dimension larger than two. Despite of nonlinearity, degeneracy, non-concavity and non-convexity, such operator generally enjoys the qualitative properties of the Laplace operator, as for instance maximum and comparison principles, ABP and Harnack inequalities, Liouville theorems for subsolutions or supersolutions. Existence and uniqueness for the Dirichlet problem are also proved as well as local and global Holder estimates for viscosity solutions. All results are discussed for a more general class of weighted partial trace operators.