Let $P_t$ be the Markov semigroup generated by a weighted Laplace operator on a Riemannian manifold, with μ an invariant probability measure. If the curvature associated with the generator is bounded below, then the exponential convergence of $P_t$ in L¹(μ) implies its hypercontractivity. Consequently, under this curvature condition L¹-convergence is a property stronger than hypercontractivity but weaker than ultracontractivity. Two examples are presented to show that in general, however, L¹-convergence...

Let Ω be an open subset of ${ℝ}^d$ with 0 ∈ Ω. Furthermore, let $H_{\Omega }=-{\sum }_{i,j=1}^d{\partial }_i{c}_{ij}{\partial }_j$ be a second-order partial differential operator with domain $C_c^{\infty }\left(\Omega \right)$ where the coefficients $c_{ij}\in W_{loc}^{1,\infty }\left(\Omega ̅\right)$ are real, $c_{ij}=c_{ji}$ and the coefficient matrix $C=\left(c_{ij}\right)$ satisfies bounds 0 < C(x) ≤ c(|x|)I for all x ∈ Ω. If ${\int }_0^{\infty }ds{s}^{d/2}{e}^{-\lambda \mu \left(s\right)²}<\infty$ for some λ > 0 where $\mu \left(s\right)={\int }_0^{s}dtc{\left(t\right)}^{-1/2}$ then we establish that $H_{\Omega }$ is L₁-unique, i.e. it has a unique L₁-extension which generates a continuous semigroup, if and only if it is Markov unique, i.e. it has a unique L₂-extension which generates a submarkovian semigroup. Moreover...

We start with a general time-homogeneous scalar diffusion whose state space is an interval I ⊆ ℝ. If it is started at x ∈ I, then we consider the problem of imposing upper and/or lower boundary conditions at two points a,b ∈ I, where a < x < b. Using a simple integral identity, we derive general expressions for the Laplace transform of the transition density of the process, if killing or reflecting boundaries are specified. We also obtain a number of useful expressions for the Laplace transforms...

We investigate the dissipativity properties of a class of scalar second order parabolic partial differential equations with time-dependent coefficients. We provide explicit condition on the drift term which ensure that the relative entropy of one particular orbit with respect to some other one decreases to zero. The decay rate is obtained explicitly by the use of a Sobolev logarithmic inequality for the associated semigroup, which is derived by an adaptation of Bakry's Γ-calculus. As a byproduct,...