The Dirichlet problem for the fractional Laplacian: regularity up to the boundary

Xavier Ros-Oton, Joaquim Serra

Published 2012-07-25Version 1

We study the regularity up to the boundary of solutions to the Dirichlet problem for the fractional Laplacian. We prove that if $u$ is a solution of $(-\Delta)^s u = g$ in $\Omega$, $u \equiv 0$ in $\R^n\setminus\Omega$, for some $s\in(0,1)$ and $g \in L^\infty(\Omega)$, then $u$ is $C^s(\R^n)$ and $u/\delta^s|_{\Omega}$ is $C^\alpha$ up to the boundary $\partial\Omega$ for some $\alpha\in(0,1)$, where $\delta(x)={\rm dist}(x,\partial\Omega)$. For this, we develop a fractional analog of the Krylov boundary Harnack method. Moreover, under further regularity assumptions on $g$ we obtain higher order H\"older estimates for $u$ and $u/\delta^s$. Namely, the $C^\beta$ norms of $u$ and $u/\delta^s$ in the sets $\{x\in\Omega : \delta(x)\geq\rho\}$ are controlled by $C\rho^{s-\beta}$ and $C\rho^{\alpha-\beta}$, respectively. These regularity results are crucial tools in our proof of the Pohozaev identity for the fractional Laplacian \cite{RS-CRAS,RS}.