Global $$C^{1,\al pha }$$ regularity and e xistence of multi ple solutions for singular p( x)-La placian equations

In this paper we study the following singular p(x)-Laplacian problem

$$\begin{aligned} \left\{ \begin{array}{l@{\quad }l} - \text{ div } \left( |\nabla u|^{p(x)-2} \nabla u\right) =\frac{ \lambda }{u^{\beta (x)}}+u^{q(x)}, &{} \text{ in }\quad \Omega , \\ u>0, &{} \text{ in }\quad \Omega , \\ u=0, &{} \text{ on }\quad \partial \Omega , \end{array}\right. \end{aligned}$$

where \(\Omega \) is a bounded domain in \(\mathbb {R}^N\), \(N\ge 2\), with smooth boundary \(\partial \Omega \), \(\beta \in C^1(\bar{\Omega })\) with \( 0< \beta (x) <1\), \(p\in C^1(\bar{\Omega })\), \(q \in C(\bar{\Omega })\) with \(p(x)>1\), \(p(x)< q(x) +1 <p^*(x)\) for \(x \in \bar{\Omega }\), where \( p^*(x)= \frac{Np(x)}{N-p(x)} \) for \(p(x) <N\) and \( p^*(x)= \infty \) for \( p(x) \ge N\). We establish \(C^{1,\alpha }\) regularity of weak solutions of the problem and strong comparison principle. Based on these two results, we prove the existence of multiple (at least two) positive solutions for a certain range of \(\lambda \).

     

Hölder continuity for continuous solutions of the singular minimal surface equation with arbitrary zero set

In this paper we prove the following theorem: Let \(\Omega \subset \mathbb {R}^{n}\) be a bounded open set, \(\psi \in C_{c}^{2}(\mathbb {R}^{n})\), \(\psi > 0\) on \(\partial \Omega \), be given boundary values and u a nonnegative solution to the problem

$$\begin{aligned}&u \in C^{0}(\overline{\Omega }) \cap C^{2}(\{u> 0\}) \\&u = \psi \quad \text { on } \; \partial \Omega \\&{\text {div}} \left( \frac{Du}{\sqrt{1 + |Du|^{2}}}\right) = \frac{\alpha }{u \sqrt{1 + |Du|^{2}}} \quad \text { in } \; \{u > 0\} \end{aligned}$$

where \(\alpha > 0\) is a given constant. Then \(u \in C^{0, \frac{1}{2}} (\overline{\Omega })\). Furthermore we prove strict mean convexity of the free boundary \(\partial \{u = 0\}\) provided \(\partial \{u = 0\}\) is assumed to be of class \(C^{2}\) and \(\alpha \ge 1\).

     

Local Maximum Modulus Property for Polyanalytic Functions

Let \(\Omega \subset {\mathbb {C}}\) be an open subset and let \({\mathcal {F}}\) be a space of functions defined on \(\Omega \). \({\mathcal {F}}\) is said to have the local maximum modulus property if: for every \(f\in {\mathcal {F}},p_0\in \Omega ,\) and for every sufficiently small domain \(D\subset \Omega ,\) with \(p_0\in D,\) it holds true that \(\max _{z\in \overline{D}}\left| f(z)\right| = \max _{z\in \Sigma \cup \partial D}\left| f(z)\right| ,\) where \(\Sigma \subset \Omega \) denotes the set of points at which \(\left| f\right| \) attains strict local maximum. This property fails for \({\mathcal {F}}=C^{\infty }.\) We verify it however for the set of complex-valued functions whose real and imaginary parts are real analytic. We show by example that the property cannot be improved upon whenever \({\mathcal {F}}\) is the set of n-analytic functions on \(\Omega \), \(n\ge 2,\) in the sense that locality cannot be removed as a condition and independently \(\Sigma \) cannot be removed from the conclusion.     

On the approximation of dynamical indicators in systems with nonuniformly hyperbolic behavior

Let f be a \(C^{1+\alpha }\) diffeomorphism of a compact Riemannian manifold and \(\mu \) an ergodic hyperbolic measure with positive entropy. We prove that for every continuous potential \(\phi \) there exists a sequence of basic sets \(\Omega _n\) such that the topological pressure \(P(f|\Omega _n,\phi )\) converges to the free energy \(P_{\mu }(\phi ) = h(\mu ) + \int \phi {d\mu }\). We also prove that for a suitable class of potentials \(\phi \) there exists a sequence of basic sets \(\Omega _n\) such that \(P(f|\Omega _n,\phi ) \rightarrow P(\phi )\).     

On the Multiplication Tuples Related to Certain Reproducing Kernel Hilbert Spaces

We consider a class of subnormal operator tuples \(M_z\) consisting of multiplications by coordinate functions on a class of reproducing kernel Hilbert spaces associated with certain bounded domains \(\Omega \) in \({\mathbb {C}}^m\), with the closure \({{\bar{\Omega }}}\) of \(\Omega \) being the Taylor spectrum of \(M_z\) and the topological boundary \(\partial \Omega \) of \(\Omega \) being the Taylor essential spectrum of \(M_z\). If T is a subnormal operator tuple quasisimilar to \(M_z\), then we show that the Taylor spectrum of T is \({{\bar{\Omega }}}\) provided \({{\bar{\Omega }}}\) is polynomially convex and provided \(\Omega \) is either strictly pseudoconvex with \(C^2\) boundary or is starlike, and that the Taylor essential spectrum of T is \(\partial \Omega \) provided \(\Omega \) satisfies the Gleason property as well. This generalizes some previous work of the first-named author in the context of the unit ball and the unit polydisk. The relevant theory is then applied to the multiplication tuples on the Hardy and Bergman spaces of complex ellipsoids.     

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.

     

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.

     

A potential well for an integral functional with singular Lagrangian

This paper concerns a functional of the form

$$\begin{aligned} \Phi (u)=\int _\Omega L(x,u(x),\nabla u(x))\, dx \end{aligned}$$

on the Sobolev space \(H_0^1(\Omega )\) where \(\Omega \) is a bounded open subset of \({\mathbb {R}}^N\) with \(N\ge 3\) and \(0\in \Omega \). The hypotheses on L ensure that \(u\equiv 0\) is a critical point of \(\Phi \), but allow the Lagrangian to be singular at \(x=0\). It is shown that, under these assumptions, the usual conditions associated with Jacobi (positive definiteness of the second variation of \(\Phi \) at \(u\equiv 0\)), Legendre (ellipticity at \(u\equiv 0\)) and Weierstrass [strict convexity of \(L(x,s,\xi )\) with respect to \(\xi \)] from the calculus of variations are not sufficient ensure that \(u\equiv 0\) is a local minimum of \(\Phi \). Using recent criteria for the existence of a potential well of a \(C^1\)-functional on a real Hilbert space, conditions implying that \(u\equiv 0\) lies in a potential well of \(\Phi \) are established. They are shown to be sharp in some cases.

     

A characterization of cut locus for $$C^1$$ hypersurfaces

Let \(\Omega \) be an open set in \(\mathbb {R}^n\) with \(C^1\)-boundary and \(\Sigma \) be the skeleton of \(\Omega \), which consists of points where the distance function to \(\partial \Omega \) is not differentiable. This paper characterizes the cut locus (ridge) \(\overline{\Sigma }\), which is the closure of the skeleton, by introducing a generalized radius of curvature and its lower semicontinuous envelope. As an application we give a sufficient condition for vanishing of the Lebesgue measure of \(\overline{\Sigma }\).     

Infiltration Equation with Degeneracy on the Boundary

This paper is mainly about the infiltration equation

$$ {u_{t}}= \operatorname{div} \bigl(a(x)|u|^{\alpha }{ \vert { \nabla u} \vert ^{p-2}}\nabla u\bigr),\quad (x,t) \in \Omega \times (0,T), $$

where \(p>1\), \(\alpha >0\), \(a(x)\in C^{1}(\overline{\Omega })\), \(a(x)\geq 0\) with \(a(x)|_{x\in \partial \Omega }=0\). If there is a constant \(\beta \) such that \(\int_{\Omega }a^{-\beta }(x)dx\leq c\), \(p>1+\frac{1}{\beta }\), then the weak solution is smooth enough to define the trace on the boundary, the stability of the weak solutions can be proved as usual. Meanwhile, if for any \(\beta >\frac{1}{p-1}\), \(\int_{\Omega }a^{-\beta }(x)dxdt=\infty \), then the weak solution lacks the regularity to define the trace on the boundary. The main innovation of this paper is to introduce a new kind of the weak solutions. By these new definitions of the weak solutions, one can study the stability of the weak solutions without any boundary value condition.

     

Mean curvature bounds and eigenvalues of Robin Laplacians

We consider the Laplacian with attractive Robin boundary conditions,

$$\begin{aligned} Q^\Omega _\alpha u=-\Delta u, \quad \dfrac{\partial u}{\partial n}=\alpha u \text { on } \partial \Omega , \end{aligned}$$

in a class of bounded smooth domains \(\Omega \in \mathbb {R}^\nu \); here \(n\) is the outward unit normal and \(\alpha >0\) is a constant. We show that for each \(j\in \mathbb {N}\) and \(\alpha \rightarrow +\infty \), the \(j\)th eigenvalue \(E_j(Q^\Omega _\alpha )\) has the asymptotics

$$\begin{aligned} E_j(Q^\Omega _\alpha )=-\alpha ^2 -(\nu -1)H_\mathrm {max}(\Omega )\,\alpha +{\mathcal O}(\alpha ^{2/3}), \end{aligned}$$

where \(H_\mathrm {max}(\Omega )\) is the maximum mean curvature at \(\partial \Omega \). The discussion of the reverse Faber-Krahn inequality gives rise to a new geometric problem concerning the minimization of \(H_\mathrm {max}\). In particular, we show that the ball is the strict minimizer of \(H_\mathrm {max}\) among the smooth star-shaped domains of a given volume, which leads to the following result: if \(B\) is a ball and \(\Omega \) is any other star-shaped smooth domain of the same volume, then for any fixed \(j\in \mathbb {N}\) we have \(E_j(Q^B_\alpha )>E_j(Q^\Omega _\alpha )\) for large \(\alpha \). An open question concerning a larger class of domains is formulated.

     

Eigenvalue Counting Function for Robin Laplacians on Conical Domains

We study the discrete spectrum of the Robin Laplacian \(Q^{\Omega }_\alpha \) in \(L^2(\Omega )\), \(u\mapsto -\Delta u, \quad D_n u=\alpha u \text { on }\partial \Omega \), where \(D_n\) is the outer unit normal derivative and \(\Omega \subset {\mathbb {R}}^{3}\) is a conical domain with a regular cross-section \(\Theta \subset {\mathbb {S}}^2\), n is the outer unit normal, and \(\alpha >0\) is a fixed constant. It is known from previous papers that the bottom of the essential spectrum of \(Q^{\Omega }_\alpha \) is \(-\alpha ^2\) and that the finiteness of the discrete spectrum depends on the geometry of the cross-section. We show that the accumulation of the discrete spectrum of \(Q^\Omega _\alpha \) is determined by the discrete spectrum of an effective Hamiltonian defined on the boundary and far from the origin. By studying this model operator, we prove that the number of eigenvalues of \(Q^{\Omega }_\alpha \) in \((-\infty ,-\alpha ^2-\lambda )\), with \(\lambda >0\), behaves for \(\lambda \rightarrow 0\) as

$$\begin{aligned} \dfrac{\alpha ^2}{8\pi \lambda } \int _{\partial \Theta } \kappa _+(s)^2\mathrm {d}s +o\left( \frac{1}{\lambda }\right) , \end{aligned}$$

where \(\kappa _+\) is the positive part of the geodesic curvature of the cross-section boundary.

     

Flatness implies smoothness for solutions of the porous medium equation

One of the major problems in the theory of the porous medium equation \(\partial _t\rho =\Delta _x\rho ^m,\,m > 1\), is the regularity of the solutions \(\rho (t,x)\ge 0\) and the free boundaries \(\Gamma =\partial \{(t,x): \rho >0\}\). Here we assume flatness of the solution and derive \(C^\infty \) regularity of the interface after a small time, as well as \(C^\infty \) regularity of the solution in the positivity set and up to the free boundary for some time interval. The proof starts from Caffarelli’s blueprint of an improvement of flatness by rescaling, and combines it with the Carleson measure approach applied to the degenerate subelliptic equation satisfied by the pressure of the porous medium equation in transformed coordinates. The improvement of flatness finally hinges on Gaussian estimates for the subelliptic problem. We use these facts to prove the following eventual regularity result: solutions defined in the whole space with compactly supported initial data are smooth after a finite time \(T_r\) that depends on \(\rho _0\). More precisely, we prove that for \(t \ge T_r\) the pressure \(\rho ^{m-1}\) is \(C^\infty \) in the positivity set and up to the free boundary, which is a \(C^\infty \) hypersurface. Moreover, \(T_r\) can be estimated in terms of only the initial mass and the initial support radius. This regularity result eliminates the assumption of non-degeneracy on the initial data that has been carried on for decades in the literature. Let us recall that regularization for small times is false, and that as \(t\rightarrow \infty \) the solution increasingly resembles a Barenblatt function and the support looks like a ball.     

Spectral density estimates with partial symmetries and an application to Bahri–Lions-type results

We are concerned with the existence of infinitely many solutions for the problem \(-\Delta u=|u|^{p-2}u+f\) in \(\Omega \), \(u=u_0\) on \(\partial \Omega \), where \(\Omega \) is a bounded domain in \(\mathbb {R}^N\), \(N\ge 3\). This can be seen as a perturbation of the problem with \(f=0\) and \(u_0=0\), which is odd in u. If \(\Omega \) is invariant with respect to a closed strict subgroup of O(N), then we prove infinite existence for all functions f and \(u_0\) in certain spaces of invariant functions for a larger range of exponents p than known before. In order to achieve this, we prove Lieb–Cwikel–Rosenbljum-type bounds for invariant potentials on \(\Omega \), employing improved Sobolev embeddings for spaces of invariant functions.     

Cartoon Approximation with $$\alpha $$-Curvelets

It is well-known that curvelets provide optimal approximations for so-called cartoon images which are defined as piecewise \(C^2\)-functions, separated by a \(C^2\) singularity curve. In this paper, we consider the more general case of piecewise \(C^\beta \)-functions, separated by a \(C^\beta \) singularity curve for \(\beta \in (1,2]\). We first prove a benchmark result for the possibly achievable best N-term approximation rate for this more general signal model. Then we introduce what we call \(\alpha \)-curvelets, which are systems that interpolate between wavelet systems on the one hand (\(\alpha = 1\)) and curvelet systems on the other hand (\(\alpha = \frac{1}{2}\)). Our main result states that those frames achieve this optimal rate for \(\alpha = \frac{1}{\beta }\), up to \(\log \)-factors.     

Multiple positive solutions of the stationary Keller–Segel system

We consider the stationary Keller–Segel equation

$$\begin{aligned} {\left\{ \begin{array}{ll} -\Delta v+v=\lambda e^v, \quad v>0 \quad &{} \text {in }\Omega ,\\ \partial _\nu v=0 &{}\text {on } \partial \Omega , \end{array}\right. } \end{aligned}$$

where \(\Omega \) is a ball. In the regime \(\lambda \rightarrow 0\), we study the radial bifurcations and we construct radial solutions by a gluing variational method. For any given \(n\in \mathbb {N}_0\), we build a solution having multiple layers at \(r_1,\ldots ,r_n\) by which we mean that the solutions concentrate on the spheres of radii \(r_i\) as \(\lambda \rightarrow 0\) (for all \(i=1,\ldots ,n\)). A remarkable fact is that, in opposition to previous known results, the layers of the solutions do not accumulate to the boundary of \(\Omega \) as \(\lambda \rightarrow 0\). Instead they satisfy an optimal partition problem in the limit.

     

Dirichlet and Neumann eigenvalue problems on CR manifolds

We study the properties of Carnot–Carathéodory spaces attached to a strictly pseudoconvex CR manifold M, in a neighborhood of each point \(x \in M\), versus the pseudohermitian geometry of M arising from a fixed positively oriented contact form \(\theta \) on M. The weak Dirichlet problem for the sublaplacian \(\Delta _b\) on \((M, \theta )\) is solved on domains \(\Omega \subset M\) supporting the Poincaré inequality. The solution to Neumann problem for the sublaplacian \(\Delta _b\) on a \(C^{1,1}\) connected \((\epsilon , \delta )\)-domain \(\Omega \subset {{\mathbb {G}}}\) in a Carnot group (due to Danielli et al. in: Memoirs of American Mathematical Society 2006) is revisited for domains in a CR manifold. As an application we prove discreetness of the Dirichlet and Neumann spectra of \(\Delta _b\) on \(\Omega \subset M\) in a Carnot–Carthéodory complete pseudohermitian manifold \((M, \theta )\).     

Zero varieties for the Nevanlinna class in weakly pseudoconvex domains of maximal type F in $$\mathbb {C}^2$$

Let \(\Omega \) be a bounded, uniformly totally pseudoconvex domain in \(\mathbb {C}^2\) with smooth boundary \(b\Omega \). Assume that \(\Omega \) is a domain admitting a maximal type F. Here, the condition maximal type F generalizes the condition of finite type in the sense of Range (Pac J Math 78(1):173–189, 1978; Scoula Norm Sup Pisa, pp 247–267, 1978) and includes many cases of infinite type. Let \(\alpha \) be a d-closed (1, 1)-form in \(\Omega \). We study the Poincaré–Lelong equation

$$\begin{aligned} i\partial \bar{\partial }u=\alpha \quad \text {on}\, \Omega \end{aligned}$$

in \(L^1(b\Omega )\) norm by applying the \(L^1(b\Omega )\) estimates for \(\bar{\partial }_b\)-equations in [11]. Then, we also obtain a prescribing zero set of Nevanlinna holomorphic functions in \(\Omega \).

     

Regularity for Inhomogeneous Dirichlet Problems of Some Schrödinger Equations on Domains

Let \(n\ge 3, \Omega \) be a bounded, simply connected and semiconvex domain in \({\mathbb {R}}^n\) and \(L_{\Omega }:=-\Delta +V\) a Schrödinger operator on \(L^2 (\Omega )\) with the Dirichlet boundary condition, where \(\Delta \) denotes the Laplace operator and the potential \(0\le V\) belongs to the reverse Hölder class \(RH_{q_0}({\mathbb {R}}^n)\) for some \(q_0\in (\max \{n/2,2\},\infty ]\). Assume that the growth function \(\varphi :\,{\mathbb {R}}^n\times [0,\infty ) \rightarrow [0,\infty )\) satisfies that \(\varphi (x,\cdot )\) is an Orlicz function and \(\varphi (\cdot ,t)\in {\mathbb {A}}_{\infty }({\mathbb {R}}^n)\) (the class of uniformly Muckenhoupt weights). Let \(H_{\varphi ,\,L_{{\mathbb {R}}^n},\,r}(\Omega )\) be the Musielak–Orlicz–Hardy space whose elements are restrictions of elements of the Musielak–Orlicz–Hardy space, associated with \(L_{{\mathbb {R}}^n}:=-\Delta +V\) on \({\mathbb {R}}^n\), to \(\Omega \). In this article, the authors show that the operators \(VL^{-1}_\Omega \) and \(\nabla ^2L^{-1}_\Omega \) are bounded from \(L^1(\Omega )\) to weak-\(L^1(\Omega )\), from \(L^p(\Omega )\) to itself, with \(p\in (1,2]\), and also from \(H_{\varphi ,\,L_{{\mathbb {R}}^n},\,r}(\Omega )\) to the Musielak–Orlicz space \(L^\varphi (\Omega )\) or to \(H_{\varphi ,\,L_{{\mathbb {R}}^n},\,r}(\Omega )\) itself. As applications, the boundedness of \(\nabla ^2{\mathbb {G}}_D\) on \(L^p(\Omega )\), with \(p\in (1,2]\), and from \(H_{\varphi ,\,L_{{\mathbb {R}}^n},\,r}(\Omega )\) to \(L^\varphi (\Omega )\) or to \(H_{\varphi ,\,L_{{\mathbb {R}}^n},\,r}(\Omega )\) itself is obtained, where \({\mathbb {G}}_D\) denotes the Dirichlet Green operator associated with \(L_\Omega \). All these results are new even for the Hardy space \(H^1_{L_{{\mathbb {R}}^n},\,r}(\Omega )\), which is just \(H_{\varphi ,\,L_{{\mathbb {R}}^n},\,r}(\Omega )\) with \(\varphi (x,t):=t\) for all \(x\in {\mathbb {R}}^n\) and \(t\in [0,\infty )\).