Quasilinear equations with natural growth in the gradients in spaces of Sobolev multipliers

We study the existence problem for a class of nonlinear elliptic equations whose prototype is of the form \(-\Delta _p u = |\nabla u|^p + \sigma \) in a bounded domain \(\Omega \subset \mathbb {R}^n\). Here \(\Delta _p\), \(p>1\), is the standard p-Laplacian operator defined by \(\Delta _p u=\mathrm{div}\, (|\nabla u|^{p-2}\nabla u)\), and the datum \(\sigma \) is a signed distribution in \(\Omega \). The class of solutions that we are interested in consists of functions \(u\in W^{1,p}_0(\Omega )\) such that \(|\nabla u|\in M(W^{1,p}(\Omega )\rightarrow L^p(\Omega ))\), a space pointwise Sobolev multipliers consisting of functions \(f\in L^{p}(\Omega )\) such that

$$\begin{aligned} \int _{\Omega } |f|^{p} |\varphi |^p dx \le C \int _{\Omega } (|\nabla \varphi |^p + |\varphi |^p) dx \quad \forall \varphi \in C^\infty (\Omega ), \end{aligned}$$

for some \(C>0\). This is a natural class of solutions at least when the distribution \(\sigma \) is nonnegative and compactly supported in \(\Omega \). We show essentially that, with only a gap in the smallness constants, the above equation has a solution in this class if and only if one can write \(\sigma =\mathrm{div}\, F\) for a vector field F such that \(|F|^{\frac{1}{p-1}}\in M(W^{1,p}(\Omega )\rightarrow L^p(\Omega ))\). As an important application, via the exponential transformation \(u\mapsto v=e^{\frac{u}{p-1}}\), we obtain an existence result for the quasilinear equation of Schrödinger type \(-\Delta _p v = \sigma \, v^{p-1}\), \(v\ge 0\) in \(\Omega \), and \(v=1\) on \(\partial \Omega \), which is interesting in its own right.

     

A Neumann problem of Ambrosetti–Prodi type

The aim of this paper is to establish an Ambrosetti–Proditype result for the problem

$$\left\{ \begin{array}{ll}-\Delta{u} = g(x, u,\nabla{u}) + t\varphi \quad {\rm in}\, \Omega,\\ \frac{\partial{u}}{\partial\eta} = 0 \qquad\qquad\qquad\quad {\rm on}\, \partial\Omega ;\end{array} \right.$$

i.e., under appropriate conditions, we will show that there exists a constant t ₀ such that the problem above has no solution if t > t ₀, at least a solution if t =  t ₀ and at least two solutions if t < t ₀. The proof is based on a combination of upper and lower solutions method and the Leray–Schauder degree.

     

A note on regularity of solutions for degenerate singular elliptic boundary value problems

We prove the \(C^{1,\beta }\)-boundary regularity and a comparison principle for weak solutions of the problem

$$\begin{aligned} \left\{ \begin{array}{ll} -\Delta _{p}u-\lambda \psi _{p}(u)=f(x)&{}\quad \text {in }\Omega , \\ u=0&{}\quad \text {on }\partial \Omega , \end{array} \right. \end{aligned}$$

where \(\Omega \) is a bounded domain in \(\mathbb {R}^{N},N>1\ \)with smooth boundary \(\partial \Omega ,\ \ \Delta _{p}u=\mathrm{div}(|\nabla u|^{p-2}\nabla u),\psi _{p}(u)=|u|^{p-2}u,p>1,\ \)and f is allowed to be unbounded.

     

$${\sigma_2}$$-Energy as a polyconvex functional on a space of self-maps of annuli in the multi-dimensional calculus of variations

Let \({\mathbb{X} \subset \mathbb {R}^n}\) be a bounded Lipschitz domain and consider the energy functional

$${{\mathbb F}_{\sigma_2}}[u; \mathbb{X}] := \int_\mathbb{X} {\mathbf F}(\nabla u) \, dx,$$

over the space of admissible maps

$${{\mathcal {A}_\varphi}(\mathbb{X}) :=\{u \in W^{1,4}(\mathbb{X}, {\mathbb{R}^n}) : {\rm det}\, \nabla u > 0\, {\rm for}\, {\mathcal {L}^n}{\rm -a.e. in}\, \mathbb{X}, u|_{\partial \mathbb{X}} =\varphi \}},$$

where the integrand \({{\mathbf F}\colon \mathbb M_{n\times n}\to \mathbb{R}}\) is quasiconvex and sufficiently regular. Here our attention is paid to the prototypical case when \({{\mathbf F}(\xi):=\frac{1}{2}\sigma_2(\xi)+\Phi(\det\xi)}\). The aim of this paper is to discuss the question of multiplicity versus uniqueness for extremals and strong local minimizers of \({\mathbb F_{\sigma_2}}\) and the relation it bares to the domain topology. In contrast, for constructing explicitly and directly solutions to the system of Euler–Lagrange equations associated to \({{\mathbb F}_{\sigma_2}}\), we use a topological class of maps referred to as generalised twists and relate the problem to extremising an associated energy on the compact Lie group \({\mathbf {SO}(n)}\). The main result is a surprising discrepancy between even and odd dimensions. In even dimensions the latter system of equations admits infinitely many smooth solutions amongst such maps whereas in odd dimensions this number reduces to one.

     

Entropy solution for a nonlinear elliptic problem with lower order term in Musielak–Orlicz spaces

In this paper, we shall be concerned with the existence result of the following problem,

$$\begin{aligned} \left\{ \begin{array}{l} -\text {div}\left( a(x,u,\nabla u)\right) -\text {div}(\Phi (x,u))= f \ \ \mathrm{in}\ \Omega ,\\ u=0 \text { on } \partial \Omega , \end{array} \right. \end{aligned}$$

(0.1)

with the second term f belongs to \(L^1(\Omega )\). The growth and the coercivity conditions on the monotone vector field a are prescribed by a generalized N-function M. We assume any restriction on M, therefore we work with Musielak–Orlicz spaces which are not necessarily reflexive. The lower order term \(\Phi \) is a Carathéodory function satisfying only a growth condition.

     

Multiplicity of nodal solutions to the Yamabe problem

Given a compact Riemannian manifold (M, g) without boundary of dimension \(m\ge 3\) and under some symmetry assumptions, we establish existence of one positive and multiple nodal solutions to the Yamabe-type equation

$$\begin{aligned} -\text {div}_{g}(a\nabla u)+bu=c|u|^{2^{*}-2}u\quad \text { on }M, \end{aligned}$$

where \(a,b,c\in \mathcal {C}^{\infty }(M), a\) and c are positive, ? div\(_{g}(a\nabla )+b\) is coercive, and \(2^{*}=\frac{2m}{m-2}\) is the critical Sobolev exponent. In particular, if \(R_{g}\) denotes the scalar curvature of (M, g), we give conditions which guarantee that the Yamabe problem

$$\begin{aligned} \Delta _{g}u+\frac{m-2}{4(m-1)}R_{g}u=\kappa u^{2^{*}-2}\quad \text { on }M \end{aligned}$$

admits a prescribed number of nodal solutions.

     

On the Dilation of Truncated Toeplitz Operators

An operator \(S_{\varphi ,\psi }^{u}\in \mathcal {L}(L^2)\) is called the dilation of a truncated Toeplitz operator if for two symbols \(\varphi ,\psi \in L^{\infty }\) and an inner function u,

$$\begin{aligned} S_{\varphi ,\psi }^{u}f=\varphi P_uf+\psi Q_uf \end{aligned}$$

holds for \(f\in {L}^{2}\) where \(P_{u}\) denotes the orthogonal projection of \(L^2\) onto the model space \(\mathcal { K}_{u}^2=H^2{\ominus }{{u}H^2}\) and \(Q_u=I-P_u.\) In this paper, we study properties of the dilation of truncated Toeplitz operators on \(L^{2}\). In particular, we provide conditions for the dilation of truncated Toeplitz operators to be normal. As some applications, we give several examples of such operators.

     

Least energy sign-changing solutions for a class of fourth order Kirchhoff-type equations in $$\mathbb {R}^{N}$$

In this article we study the problem

$$\begin{aligned} \Delta ^{2}u-\left( a+b\int _{\mathbb {R}^{N}}\left| \nabla u\right| ^{2}dx\right) \Delta u+V(x)u=\left| u\right| ^{p-2}u\ \text { in }\mathbb {R}^{N}, \end{aligned}$$

where \(\Delta ^{2}:=\Delta (\Delta )\) is the biharmonic operator, \(a,b>0\) are constants, \(N\le 7,\) \(p\in (4,2_{*})\) for \(2_{*}\) defined below, and \(V(x)\in C(\mathbb {R}^{N},\mathbb {R})\). Under appropriate assumptions on V(x), the existence of least energy sign-changing solution is obtained by combining the variational methods and the Nehari method.

     

On the regularity of scalar <Emphasis Type="Italic">p</Emphasis>-Harmonic functions in <Emphasis Type="Italic">n</Emphasis> dimensions with 2 ≤ <Emphasis Type="Italic">p</Emphasis> < <Emphasis Type="Italic">n</Emphasis>

Using Tilli’s technique [Cal Var 25(3):395–401, 2006], we shall give a new proof of the regularity of the local minima of the functional

$J\left( u\right) =\int\limits_{\Omega } \left\vert \partial u\right\vert^{p}\,dx$

with Ω a domain of class C ^{0, 1} in \({\mathbb{R}^{n}}\) and 2 ≤ p < n.

     

A threshold phenomenon for embeddings of $${H^m_0}$$ into Orlicz spaces

Given an open bounded domain \({\Omega\subset\mathbb {R}^{2m}}\) with smooth boundary, we consider a sequence \({(u_k)_{k\in\mathbb{N}}}\) of positive smooth solutions to

$\left\{\begin{array}{ll} (-\Delta)^m u_k=\lambda_k u_k e^{mu_k^2} \quad\quad\quad\quad\quad {\rm in}\,\Omega\\ u_k=\partial_\nu u_k=\cdots =\partial_\nu^{m-1} u_k=0 \quad {\rm on }\, \partial \Omega, \end{array}\right.$

where λ _k → 0⁺. Assuming that the sequence is bounded in \({H^m_0(\Omega)}\) , we study its blow-up behavior. We show that if the sequence is not precompact, then

$\liminf_{k\to\infty}\|u_k\|^2_{H^m_0}:=\liminf_{k\to\infty}\int\limits_\Omega u_k(-\Delta)^m u_k dx\geq \Lambda_1,$

where Λ₁ = (2m ? 1)!vol(S ^2m ) is the total Q-curvature of S ^2m .

     

Universal inequalities for eigenvalues of a system of elliptic equations of the drifting Laplacian

Let \(\Omega \) be a bounded domain in a n-dimensional Euclidean space \(\mathbb {R}^{n}\). We study eigenvalues of an eigenvalue problem of a system of elliptic equations of the drifting Laplacian

$$\begin{aligned} \left\{ \begin{array}{ll} \mathbb {L_{\phi }}\mathbf{{u}} + \alpha (\nabla (\mathrm {div}{} \mathbf{{u}}) - \nabla \phi \mathrm {div}{} \mathbf{{u}})= -\bar{\sigma }\mathbf{{u}}, &{} \hbox {in} \,\Omega ; \\ \mathbf{{u}}|_{\,\partial \Omega }=0. \end{array} \right. \end{aligned}$$

Estimates for eigenvalues of the above eigenvalue problem are obtained. Furthermore, a universal inequality for lower order eigenvalues of the problem is also derived. Finally, we prove an universal inequality type Ashbaugh and Benguria for the drifting Laplacian on Riemannian manifold immersed in an unit sphere or a projective space.

     

Multiple complex-valued solutions for nonlinear magnetic Schrödinger equations

We study, in the semiclassical limit, the singularly perturbed nonlinear Schrödinger equations

$$\begin{aligned} L^{\hbar }_{A,V} u = f(|u|^2)u \quad \hbox {in}\quad \mathbb {R}^N \end{aligned}$$

(0.1)

where \(N \ge 3\), \(L^{\hbar }_{A,V}\) is the Schrödinger operator with a magnetic field having source in a \(C^1\) vector potential A and a scalar continuous (electric) potential V defined by

$$\begin{aligned} L^{\hbar }_{A,V}= -\hbar ^2 \Delta -\frac{2\hbar }{i} A \cdot \nabla + |A|^2- \frac{\hbar }{i}\mathrm{div}A + V(x). \end{aligned}$$

(0.2)

Here, f is a nonlinear term which satisfies the so-called Berestycki-Lions conditions. We assume that there exists a bounded domain \(\Omega \subset \mathbb {R}^N\) such that

$$\begin{aligned} m_0 \equiv \inf _{x \in \Omega } V(x) < \inf _{x \in \partial \Omega } V(x) \end{aligned}$$

and we set \(K = \{ x \in \Omega \ | \ V(x) = m_0\}\). For \(\hbar >0\) small we prove the existence of at least \({\mathrm{cupl}}(K) + 1\) geometrically distinct, complex-valued solutions to (0.1) whose moduli concentrate around K as \(\hbar \rightarrow 0\).

     

Existence results for a singular quasilinear elliptic equation

Let \(\Omega \subset \mathbb R^N\) be a bounded domain with smooth boundary. Existence of a positive solution to the quasilinear equation

$$\begin{aligned} -\text {div}\left[ \left( a(x)+|u|^\theta \right) \nabla u\right] +\frac{\theta }{2}|u|^{\theta -2}u|\nabla u|^2=|u|^{p-2}u \quad \text {in}\ \Omega \end{aligned}$$

with zero Dirichlet boundary condition is proved. Here \(\theta >0\) and a(x) is a measurable function satisfying \(0<\alpha \le a(x)\le \beta \). The equation involves singularity when \(0<\theta \le 1\). As a main novelty with respect to corresponding results in the literature, we only assume \(\theta +2<p<\frac{2^*}{2}(\theta +2)\). The proof relies on a perturbation method and a critical point theory for E-differentiable functionals.

     

On the Hölder regularity of the weak solution to a drift–diffusion system with pressure

In this paper we address the regularity issue of weak solution for the following linear drift–diffusion system with pressure

$$\begin{aligned} \partial _t u + b\cdot \nabla u -\Delta u + \nabla p = 0,\quad \mathrm {div}\,u=0,\quad u|_{t=0}(x)=u_0(x), \end{aligned}$$

where \(x\in \mathbb {R}^n\) and b is a given divergence-free vector field. Under some assumptions of the drift field b in the critical sense, and for the initial data \(u_0\in (L^2(\mathbb {R}^n))^n\), we prove that there exists a weak solution u(t) to this system such that u(t) for any time \(t>0\) is \(\alpha \)-Hölder continuous with \(\alpha \in (0,1)\). The proof of the Hölder regularity result utilizes a maximum-principle type method to improve the regularity of weak solution step by step.

     

On an elliptic Kirchhoff-type problem depending on two parameters

In this paper, on a bounded domain \({\Omega\subset {\bf R}^n}\), we consider a non-local problem of the type

$\left\{\begin{array}{l}-K\left(\int_{\Omega}|\nabla u(x)|^2dx\right)\Delta u =\lambda f(x,u)+\mu g(x,u) \quad {\rm in}\,\,\Omega\\ u=0 \quad {\rm on}\,\,\partial\Omega.\end{array}\right.$

Under rather general assumptions on K and f, we prove, in particular, that there exists λ* > 0 such that, for each λ > λ* and each Carathéodory function g with a sub-critical growth, the above problem has at least three weak solutions for every μ ≥ 0 small enough.

     

On some invariance of the quotient mean with respect to Makó–Páles means

Given a continuous strictly monotone function \(\varphi \) defined on an open real interval I and a probability measure \(\mu \) on the Borel subsets of [0, 1], the Makó–Páles mean is defined by

$$\begin{aligned} {\mathcal {M}}_{\varphi ,\mu }(x,y):=\varphi ^{-1}\left( \int ^1_0\varphi (tx+(1-t)y)\, d\mu (t)\right) ,\quad x,y\in I. \end{aligned}$$

Under some conditions on the functions \(\varphi \) and \(\psi \) defined on I, the quotient mean is given by

$$\begin{aligned} Q_{\varphi ,\psi }(x,y):=\left( \frac{\varphi }{\psi }\right) ^{-1}\left( \frac{\varphi (x)}{\psi (y)}\right) , \quad x,y\in I. \end{aligned}$$

In this paper, we study some invariance of the quotient mean with respect to Makó–Páles means.

     

On the <Emphasis Type="Italic">p</Emphasis>-Laplacian with Robin boundary conditions and boundary trace theorems

Let \(\Omega \subset \mathbb {R}^\nu \), \(\nu \ge 2\), be a \(C^{1,1}\) domain whose boundary \(\partial \Omega \) is either compact or behaves suitably at infinity. For \(p\in (1,\infty )\) and \(\alpha >0\), define

$$\begin{aligned} \Lambda (\Omega ,p,\alpha ):=\inf _{\begin{array}{c} u\in W^{1,p}(\Omega )\\ u\not \equiv 0 \end{array}}\dfrac{\displaystyle \int _\Omega |\nabla u|^p \mathrm {d} x - \alpha \displaystyle \int _{\partial \Omega } |u|^p\mathrm {d}\sigma }{\displaystyle \int _\Omega |u|^p\mathrm {d} x}, \end{aligned}$$

where \(\mathrm {d}\sigma \) is the surface measure on \(\partial \Omega \). We show the asymptotics

$$\begin{aligned} \Lambda (\Omega ,p,\alpha )=-(p-1)\alpha ^{\frac{p}{p-1}} - (\nu -1)H_\mathrm {max}\, \alpha + o(\alpha ), \quad \alpha \rightarrow +\infty , \end{aligned}$$

where \(H_\mathrm {max}\) is the maximum mean curvature of \(\partial \Omega \). The asymptotic behavior of the associated minimizers is discussed as well. The estimate is then applied to the study of the best constant in a boundary trace theorem for expanding domains, to the norm estimate for extension operators and to related isoperimetric inequalities.

     

Existence and nonexistence of solutions to pure supercritical <Emphasis Type="Italic">p</Emphasis>-Laplacian problems

We establish multiplicity and nonexistence of solutions to the quasilinear problem

$$\begin{aligned} -\Delta _{p}v=\left| v\right| ^{q-2}v\,\,\text {in}\,\,\Omega ,\qquad v=0\text { on }{\partial {\Omega }}, \end{aligned}$$

in some bounded smooth domains \(\Omega \) in \(\mathbb {R}^{N}\), for \(1<p<N\) and some supercritical exponents \(q>p^{*}:=\frac{Np}{N-p}\). Multiplicity is established in domains arising from the Hopf maps. We show that, after a suitable change of metric, these maps become p-harmonic morphisms, i.e., they preserve the p-Laplace operator up to a factor. We use them to reduce the supercritical problem to an anisotropic quasilinear critical problem in a domain of lower dimension.

     

On the equation $${{\rm det}\,\nabla{u}=f}$$ with no sign hypothesis

We prove existence of \({u\in C^{k}(\overline{\Omega};\mathbb{R}^{n})}\) satisfying

$\left\{\begin{array}{ll} det\nabla u(x) =f(x) \, x\in \Omega\\ u(x) =x \quad\quad\quad\quad x\in\partial\Omega\end{array}\right.$

where k ≥ 1 is an integer, \({\Omega}\) is a bounded smooth domain and \({f\in C^{k}(\overline{\Omega}) }\) satisfies

$\int\limits_{\Omega}f(x) dx={\rm meas} \Omega$

with no sign hypothesis on f.

     

Null controllability in large time of a parabolic equation involving the Grushin operator with an inverse-square potential

We prove the null controllability in large time of the following linear parabolic equation involving the Grushin operator with an inverse-square potential

$$u_t-\Delta_{x} u-|x|^{2}\Delta_{y}u-\frac{\mu}{|x|^2}u=v1_\omega$$

in a bounded domain \({\Omega=\Omega_1\times \Omega_2\subset \mathbb{R}^{N_1}\times \mathbb{R}^{N_2} (N_1\geq 3, N_2\geq 1}\)) intersecting the surface {x = 0} under an additive control supported in an open subset \({\omega=\omega_1\times \Omega_2}\) of \({\Omega}\).