Elliptic systems and material interpenetration

Abstract

We classify the second order, linear, two by two systems for which the two fundamental theorems for planar harmonic mappings, the Radó--Kneser--Choquet theorem and the H. Lewy theorem, hold. They are those which, up to a linear change of variable, can be written in diagonal form with \emph{the same} operator on both diagonal blocks. In particular, we prove that the aforementioned theorems cannot be extended to solutions of either the Lamé system of elasticity, or of elliptic systems in diagonal form, even with just slightly different operators for the two components.