Oscillatory radial solutions for subcritical biharmonic equations

It is well known that the biharmonic equation Δ²u=u|u|^p−1 with p∈(1,∞) has positive solutions on Rn if and only if the growth of the nonlinearity is critical or supercritical. We close a gap in the existing literature by proving the existence and uniqueness, up to scaling and symmetry, of oscillatory radial solutions on Rn in the subcritical case. Analyzing the nodal properties of these solutions, we also obtain precise information about sign-changing large radial solutions and radial solutions of the Dirichlet problem on a ball.     

On ground state solutions for singular and semi-linear problems including super-linear terms at infinity

We establish a result concerning the existence of entire, positive, classical and bounded solutions which converge to zero at infinity for the semi-linear equation −Δu=λf(x,u),x∈R^N, where f:R^N×(0,∞)→[0,∞) is a suitable function and λ>0 is a real parameter. This result completes the principal theorem of A. Mohammed [A. Mohammed, Ground state solutions for singular semi-linear elliptic equations, Nonlinear Analysis (2008) doi:10.1016/j.na.2008.11.080] mainly because his result does not address the super-linear terms at infinity. Penalty arguments, lower-upper solutions and an approximation procedure will be used.     

Entire solutions for a semilinear fourth order elliptic problem with exponential nonlinearity

We investigate entire radial solutions of the semilinear biharmonic equation Δ²u=λexp(u) in Rn, n?5, λ>0 being a parameter. We show that singular radial solutions of the corresponding Dirichlet problem in the unit ball cannot be extended as solutions of the equation to the whole of Rn. In particular, they cannot be expanded as power series in the natural variable s=log|x|. Next, we prove the existence of infinitely many entire regular radial solutions. They all diverge to −∞ as |x|→∞ and we specify their asymptotic behaviour. As in the case with power-type nonlinearities [F. Gazzola, H.-Ch. Grunau, Radial entire solutions for supercritical biharmonic equations, Math. Ann. 334 (2006) 905-936], the entire singular solution x?−4log|x| plays the role of a separatrix in the bifurcation picture. Finally, a technique for the computer assisted study of a broad class of equations is developed. It is applied to obtain a computer assisted proof of the underlying dynamical behaviour for the bifurcation diagram of a corresponding autonomous system of ODEs, in the case n=5.     

Solutions concentrating on higher dimensional subsets for singularly perturbed elliptic equations II

We construct spike layered solutions for the semilinear elliptic equation −ε²Δu+V(x)u=K(x)up−1 on a domain Ω⊂RN which may be bounded or unbounded. The solutions concentrate simultaneously on a finite number of m-dimensional spheres in Ω. These spheres accumulate as ε→0 at a prescribed sphere in Ω whose location is determined by the potential functions V,K.     

Concentration on minimal submanifolds for a singularly perturbed Neumann problem

We consider the equation −ε²Δu+u=up in Ω⊆RN, where Ω is open, smooth and bounded, and we prove concentration of solutions along k-dimensional minimal submanifolds of ∂Ω, for N?3 and for k∈{1,…,N−2}. We impose Neumann boundary conditions, assuming 1<p<(N−k+2)/(N−k−2) and ε→⁰⁺. This result settles in full generality a phenomenon previously considered only in the particular case N=3 and k=1.     

Reconstruction of two time independent coefficients in an inverse problem for a phase field system

In this paper we present stability results concerning the inverse problem of determining two time independent coefficients for a phase field system in a bounded domain Ω⊂Rⁿ for the dimension n≤3 with a single observation on a subdomain ω?Ω and the Sobolev norm of certain partial derivatives of the solutions at a fixed positive time θ∈(0,T) over the whole spatial domain. The proof of these results relies on an appropriate Carleman estimate for the phase field system.     

Existence and regularity of extremal solutions for a mean-curvature equation

We study a class of mean curvature equations −Mu=H+λup where M denotes the mean curvature operator and for p?1. We show that there exists an extremal parameter λ^∗ such that this equation admits a minimal weak solutions for all λ∈[0,λ^∗], while no weak solutions exists for λ>λ^∗ (weak solutions will be defined as critical points of a suitable functional). In the radially symmetric case, we then show that minimal weak solutions are classical solutions for all λ∈[0,λ^∗] and that another branch of classical solutions exists in a neighborhood (λ_∗−η,λ^∗) of λ^∗.     

Bubble towers for supercritical semilinear elliptic equations

We construct positive solutions of the semilinear elliptic problem with Dirichet boundary conditions, in a bounded smooth domain Ω⊂R^N(N?4), when the exponent p is supercritical and close enough to and the parameter λ∈R is small enough. As , the solutions have multiple blow up at finitely many points which are the critical points of a function whose definition involves Green's function. Our result extends the result of Del Pino et al. (J. Differential Equations 193(2) (2003) 280) when Ω is a ball and the solutions are radially symmetric.     

Uniqueness and non-existence theorems for conformally invariant equations

By using the equivalent integral form for the Q-curvature equation, we generalize the well-known non-existence results on two-dimensional Gaussian curvature equation to all dimensional Q-curvature equation. Somehow, we introduce a new approach to Q-curvature equation which is higher order and even pseudo-differential equation. As a by-product, we do classify the solutions for Q=1 solutions on Sⁿ as well as on Rⁿ with necessary growth rate assumption.     

Weighted Sobolev embedding with unbounded and decaying radial potentials

We prove embedding results of weighted W1,p(RN) spaces of radially symmetric functions. The results then are used to obtain ground and bound state solutions of quasilinear equations with unbounded or decaying radial potentials.     

Uniqueness and structure of solutions to the Dirichlet problem for an elliptic system

In this paper, we consider the Dirichlet problem for an elliptic system on a ball in R². By investigating the properties for the corresponding linearized equations of solutions, and adopting the Pohozaev identity and Implicit Function Theorem, we show the uniqueness and the structure of solutions.     

Nodal solutions for singularly perturbed equations with critical exponential growth

The existence and concentration behavior of nodal solutions are established for the equation −?²Δu+V(z)u=f(u) in Ω, where Ω is a domain in R², not necessarily bounded, V is a positive Hölder continuous function and f∈C¹ is an odd function having critical exponential growth.     

Existence of radial solutions with prescribed number of zeros for elliptic equations and their Morse index

In this paper we consider radially symmetric solutions of the nonlinear Dirichlet problem Δu+f(|x|,u)=0 in Ω, where Ω is a ball in RN, N?3 and f satisfies some appropriate assumptions. We prove existence of radially symmetric solutions with k prescribed number of zeros. Moreover, when f(|x|,u)=K(|x|)|u|^p−1u, using the uniqueness result due to Tanaka (2008) [21], we verify that these solutions are non-degenerate and we prove that their radial Morse index is exactly k.     

Multiple solutions of nonlinear elliptic systems

We proved a multiplicity result for a nonlinear elliptic system in R^N. The functional related to the system is strongly indefinite. We investigated the relation between the number of solutions and the topology of the set of the global maxima of the coefficients.     

Uniqueness of positive radial solutions for quasilinear elliptic equations in an annulus

Extending a previous result of Tang [1] we prove the uniqueness of positive radial solutions of Δ_pu+f(u)=0, subject to Dirichlet boundary conditions on an annulus in Rⁿ with 2<p≤n, under suitable hypotheses on the nonlinearity f. This argument also provides an alternative proof for the uniqueness of positive solutions of the same problem in a finite ball (see [9]), in the complement of a ball or in the whole space Rⁿ (see [10], [3] and [11]).     

The Liouville equation in a half-plane

We classify the solutions of the equation Δu+aeu=0 in the half-plane that satisfy the Neumann boundary condition ∂u/∂t=ceu/2 on . An analogous problem in the once punctured disc D^∗⊂R² is also solved.     

Multiple positive and 2-nodal symmetric solutions of elliptic problems with critical nonlinearity

We consider the problem −Δu+a(x)u=f(x)|u|^2*−2u in Ω, u=0 on ∂Ω, where Ω is a bounded smooth domain in RN, N?4, is the critical Sobolev exponent, and a,f are continuous functions. We assume that Ω, a and f are invariant under the action of a group of orthogonal transformations. We obtain multiplicity results which contain information about the symmetry and symmetry-breaking properties of the solutions, and about their nodal domains. Our results include new multiplicity results for the Brezis-Nirenberg problem −Δu+λu=|u|^2*−2u in Ω, u=0 on ∂Ω.     

Existence and asymptotic behavior for elliptic equations with singular anisotropic potentials

We study the equation Δu+u|u|^p−1+V(x)u+f(x)=0 in Rn, where n?3 and p>n/(n−2). The forcing term f and the potential V can be singular at zero, change sign and decay polynomially at infinity. We can consider anisotropic potentials of form h(x)|x|⁻² where h is not purely angular. We obtain solutions u which blow up at the origin and do not belong to any Lebesgue space Lr. Also, u is positive and radial, in case f and V are. Asymptotic stability properties of solutions, their behavior near the singularity, and decay are addressed.     

Existence of positive solutions for the Hénon equation involving critical Sobolev terms

Let N?3, ^2*=2N/(N−2) and Ω⊂RN be a bounded domain with a smooth boundary ∂Ω and 0∈Ω. Our purpose in this paper is to consider the existence of solutions of Hénon equation: