Potential theory for a class of strongly degenerate parabolic operators of Kolmogorov type with rough coefficients

Abstract: In this paper we develop a potential theory for strongly degenerate parabolic operators of the form [ \mathcal{L}:=\nabla_X\cdot(A(X,Y,t)\nabla_X)+X\cdot\nabla_{Y}-\partial_t, ] in unbounded domains of the form [ \Omega={(X,Y,t)=(x,x_{m},y,y_{m},t)\in\mathbb R^{m-1}\times\mathbb R\times\mathbb R^{m-1}\times\mathbb R\times\mathbb R\mid x_m>\psi(x,y,y_m,t)}, ] where $\psi$ is assumed to satisfy a uniform Lipschitz condition adapted to the dilation structure and the (non-Euclidean) Lie group underlying the operator $\mathcal{L}$. Concerning $A=A(X,Y,t)$ we assume that $A$ is bounded, measurable, symmetric and uniformly elliptic (as a matrix in $\mathbb R^{m}$). Beyond the solvability of the Dirichlet problem and other fundamental properties our results include scale and translation invariant boundary comparison principles, boundary Harnack inequalities and doubling properties of associated parabolic measures. All of our estimates are translation- and scale-invariant with constants only depending on the constants defining the boundedness and ellipticity of $A$ and the Lipschitz constant of $\psi$. Our results represent a version, for operators of Kolmogorov type with bounded, measurable coefficients, of the by now classical results of Fabes and Safonov, any several others, concerning boundary estimates for uniformly parabolic equations in (time-dependent) Lipschitz type domains.