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Liviu Nicolaescu
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The unique continuation is valid for generalized Laplacians. This follows from Hörmander's result in

Hörmander, Lars, Uniqueness theorems for second order elliptic differential equations, Commun. Partial Differ. Equations 8, 21-64 (1983). ZBL0546.35023 MR686819

The operators you mentioned are such generalized Laplacians. Here are a few details.

Suppose that $E$ is a metric vector bundle over the Riemann manifold $(M,g)$. Denote by $\Delta_M$ the scalar Laplacian determined by the metric $g$. Fix a connection on $E$ compatible with the metric on $E$ and set $\Delta_E=\nabla^*\nabla: C^\infty(E)\to C^\infty(E)$.

For any $u\in C^\infty(E)$ we have

$$\Delta_M |u(x)|_E^2=2\big\langle \Delta_E u(x),u(x)\big\rangle_E-2\vert \nabla u(x)\vert_E^2.$$

A second order partial differential operator $L$ is called a generalized Laplacian if its principal symbol satisfies

$$ \sigma_L(\xi)=-|\xi|_g^2\cdot \mathbf{1}_{E_x},\;\;\forall x\in M,\;\;\forall \xi\in T^*_xM. $$

Any generalized Laplacian $L:C^\infty(E)\to C^\infty(E)$ has the form

$$ L=\nabla^*\nabla+ T=\Delta_E+T,$$

for some a connection $\nabla$ on $E$ compatible with the metric on $E$ and an endomorphism $T$ of the bundle $E$; see Proposition 10.1.34 here.

If $Lu=0$, then $\Delta_E u=-Tu$ and we deduce

$$\Delta_M |u(x)|_E^2=-2\big\langle Tu(x),u(x)\big\rangle_E-2\vert \nabla u(x)\vert_E^2.$$

At this point you can invoke the above results of Hörmander for the scalar function $|u(x)|_E^2$ to obtain the unique continuation.

Liviu Nicolaescu
  • 34.7k
  • 2
  • 91
  • 165