Perturbation and Interpolation Theorems for the H∞-Calculus with Applications to Differential Operators

Abstract. We prove comparison theorems for the H∞-calculus that allow to transfer the property of having a bounded H∞-calculus from one sectorial operator to another. The basic technical ingredient are suitable square function estimates. These comparison results provide a new approach to perturbation theorems for the H∞-calculus in a variety of situations suitable for applications. Our square function estimates also give rise to a new interpolation method, the Rademacher interpolation. We show that a bounded H∞-calculus is characterized by interpolation of the domains of fractional powers with respect to Rademacher interpolation. This leads to comparison and perturbation results for operators defined in interpolation scales such as theLpscale. We apply the results to give new proofs on the H∞-calculus for elliptic differential operators, including Schrödinger operators and perturbed boundary conditions. As new results we prove that elliptic boundary value problemswith bounded uniformly coefficients have a bounded H∞-calculus in certain Sobolev spaces and that the Stokes operator on bounded domains with ∂ ∈ C1,1 has a bounded H∞-calculus in the Helmholtz scale Lp,σ ( ), p ∈ (1,∞).