Hidden Boundary Trace Regularity and an Observability Estimate with Interior Remainder for Boundary-Degenerate Hyperbolic Equations

Abstract

We study hidden boundary trace regularity for two-dimensional hyperbolic equations with boundary degeneracy governed by $\mcA\vp=-\Div(A\nabla \vp)$, where $A=\diag(1,r^\al)$ and $\al\in(0,1)$. We establish well-posedness in weighted Sobolev spaces and prove an $L^2$ trace estimate for the normal derivative on the nondegenerate side $r=1$. Using truncated geometries and Carleman weights adapted to the anisotropic degeneracy, we derive a large-time observability estimate with a lower-order interior remainder. We also identify a framework-level obstruction at the critical threshold $\al=1$: the weighted Dirichlet coercivity underlying the subcritical analysis loses uniformity and exhibits a logarithmic loss on truncated domains.