Sharp estimates for solutions of mean field equations with collapsing singularity

The pioneering work of Brezis-Merle [7 Brezis, H., Merle, F. (1991). Uniform estimates and blow-up behavior for solutions of ?Δu = V(x)e^u in two dimensions. Commun. Partial Differential Equation 16:1223–1254.[Taylor & Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]], Li-Shafrir [27 Li, Y.Y., Shafrir, I. (1994). Blow-up analysis for solutions of ?Δu = V(x)e^u in dimension two. Indiana Univ. Math. J. 43:1255–1270.[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]], Li [26 Li, Y.Y. (1999). Harnack inequality: the method of moving planes. Commun. Math. Phys. 200:421–444.[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]], and Bartolucci-Tarantello [3 Bartolucci, D., Tarantello, G. (2002). Liouville type equations with singular data and their applications to periodic multivortices for the electroweak theory. Commun. Math. Phys. 229:3–47.[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]] showed that any sequence of blow-up solutions for (singular) mean field equations of Liouville type must exhibit a “mass concentration” property. A typical situation of blowup occurs when we let the singular (vortex) points involved in the equation (see (1.1) below) collapse together. However in this case, Lin-Tarantello in [30 Lin, C.S., Tarantello, G. (2016). When “blow-up” does not imply “concentration”: A detour from Brezis-Merle’s result. C. R. Math. Acad. Sci. Paris 354:493–498.[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]] pointed out that the phenomenon: “bubbling implies mass concentration” might not occur and new scenarios open for investigation. In this paper, we present two explicit examples which illustrate (with mathematical rigor) how a “nonconcentration” situation does happen and its new features. Among other facts, we show that in certain situations, the collapsing rate of the singularities can be used as blow-up parameter to describe the bubbling properties of the solution-sequence. In this way, we are able to establish accurate estimates around the blow-up points which we hope to use toward a degree counting formula for the shadow system (1.34) below.