In mathematics, Nemytskii operators are a class of nonlinear operators on L^p spaces with good continuity and boundedness properties. They take their name from the mathematician Viktor Vladimirovich Nemytskii.

Definition

Let Ω be a domain (an open and connected set) in n-dimensional Euclidean space. A function f : Ω × R^m → R is said to satisfy the Carathéodory conditions if

• f(x, u) is a continuous function of u for almost all x ∈ Ω;
• f(x, u) is a measurable function of x for all u ∈ R^m.

Given a function f satisfying the Carathéodory conditions and a function u : Ω → R^m, define a new function F(u) : Ω → R by

${\displaystyle F(u)(x)=f{\big (}x,u(x){\big )}.}$

The function F is called a Nemytskii operator.

Boundedness theorem

Let Ω be a domain, let 1 < p < +∞ and let g ∈ L^q(Ω; R), with

${\displaystyle {\frac {1}{p}}+{\frac {1}{q}}=1.}$

Suppose that f satisfies the Carathéodory conditions and that, for some constant C and all x and u,

${\displaystyle {\big |}f(x,u){\big |}\leq C|u|^{p-1}+g(x).}$

Then the Nemytskii operator F as defined above is a bounded and continuous map from L^p(Ω; R^m) into L^q(Ω; R).

References

• Renardy, Michael & Rogers, Robert C. (2004). An introduction to partial differential equations. Texts in Applied Mathematics 13 (Second ed.). New York: Springer-Verlag. p. 370. ISBN  0-387-00444-0. (Section 10.3.4)