Various PDE estimates, such as maximal regularity or Kato’s square
root estimates for elliptic operators, can be obtained by establishing the
boundedness of a holomorphic functional calculus for relevant differential
operators. The difficulty, when dealing with this functional calculus in an
abstract functional analytic setting, is that it is not stable under natural
perturbations (such as Linfinity perturbations of the coefficients for a
divergence form elliptic operator). Here we show that, if one focus on
certain differential operators, stability under such perturbations can be
established using harmonic analytic techniques developed during the
solution of Kato’s square root problem. We are able to work directly in