An elliptic system with bifurcation parameters on the boundary conditions

In this paper we consider the elliptic system Δu=a(x)upvq, Δv=b(x)urvs in Ω, a smooth bounded domain, with boundary conditions , on ∂Ω. Here λ and μ are regarded as parameters and p,s>1, q,r>0 verify (p−1)(s−1)>qr. We consider the case where a(x)?0 in Ω and a(x) is allowed to vanish in an interior subdomain Ω₀, while b(x)>0 in . Our main results include existence of nonnegative nontrivial solutions in the range 0<λ<λ₁?∞, μ>0, where λ₁ is characterized by means of an eigenvalue problem, and the uniqueness of such solutions. We also study their asymptotic behavior in all possible cases: as both λ,μ→0, as λ→λ₁<∞ for fixed μ (respectively μ→∞ for fixed λ) and when both λ,μ→∞ in case λ₁=∞.     

Coincidence sets in quasilinear elliptic problems of monostable type

This paper concerns the formation of a coincidence set for the positive solution of the boundary value problem: −εΔpu=uq−1f(a(x)−u) in Ω with u=0 on ∂Ω, where ε is a positive parameter, Δpu=div(|∇u|^p−2∇u), 1<q?p<∞, f(s)∼|s|^θ−1s(s→0) for some θ>0 and a(x) is a positive smooth function satisfying Δpa=0 in Ω with infΩ|∇a|>0. It is proved in this paper that if 0<θ<1 the coincidence set Oε={x∈Ω:uε(x)=a(x)} has a positive measure for small ε and converges to Ω with order O(ε1/p) as ε→0. Moreover, it is also shown that if θ?1, then Oε is empty for any ε>0. The proofs rely on comparison theorems and the energy method for obtaining local comparison functions.     

Positive solutions of Lane-Emden systems with negative exponents: Existence, boundary behavior and uniqueness

We study the existence, boundary behavior and uniqueness of solutions for the singular elliptic system −Δu=u^−pv^−q,−Δv=u^−rv^−s,u>0,v>0,x∈Ω,u|_∂Ω=v|_∂Ω=0, where Ω is a bounded domain with smooth boundary in R^N, p,s≥0 and q,r>0. Our results are obtained in a range of p,q,r,s different from those in [M. Ghergu, Lane-Emden systems with negative exponents, J. Funct. Anal. 258 (2010) 3295-3318].     

Boundary blow-up solutions to elliptic systems of competitive type

We consider the elliptic system Δu=u^pv^q, Δv=u^rv^s in Ω, where p,s>1, q,r>0, and Ω⊂R^N is a smooth bounded domain, subject to different types of Dirichlet boundary conditions: (F) u=λ, v=μ, (I) u=v=+∞ and (SF) u=+∞, v=μ on ∂Ω, where λ,μ>0. Under several hypotheses on the parameters p,q,r,s, we show existence and nonexistence of positive solutions, uniqueness and nonuniqueness. We further provide the exact asymptotic behaviour of the solutions and their normal derivatives near ∂Ω. Some more general related problems are also studied.     

Large solutions for an elliptic system of quasilinear equations

In this paper we consider the quasilinear elliptic system Δpu=uavb, Δpv=ucve in a smooth bounded domain Ω⊂RN, with the boundary conditions u=v=+∞ on ∂Ω. The operator Δp stands for the p-Laplacian defined by Δpu=div(|∇u|^p−2∇u), p>1, and the exponents verify a,e>p−1, b,c>0 and (a−p+1)(e−p+1)?bc. We analyze positive solutions in both components, providing necessary and sufficient conditions for existence. We also prove uniqueness of positive solutions in the case (a−p+1)(e−p+1)>bc and obtain the exact blow-up rate near the boundary of the solution. In the case (a−p+1)(e−p+1)=bc, infinitely many positive solutions are constructed.     

The heat equation with singular nonlinearity and singular initial data

We study the existence, uniqueness and regularity of positive solutions of the parabolic equation ut−Δu=a(x)uq+b(x)up in a bounded domain and with Dirichlet's condition on the boundary. We consider here a∈Lα(Ω), b∈Lβ(Ω) and 0<q?1<p. The initial data u(0)=u₀ is considered in the space Lr(Ω), r?1. In the main result (0<q<1), we assume a,b?0 a.e. in Ω and we assume that u₀?γdΩ for some γ>0. We find a unique solution in the space .     

Multiple positive solutions of nonhomogeneous elliptic systems with strongly indefinite structure and critical Sobolev exponents

In this paper, we study the existence of multiple positive solutions to some Hamiltonian elliptic systems −Δv=λu+u^p+εf(x), −Δu=μv+v^q+δg(x) in Ω;u,v>0 in Ω; u=v=0 on ∂Ω, where Ω is a bounded domain in R^N (N?3); 0?f, g∈L∞(Ω); 1/(p+1)+1/(q+1)=(N−2)/N, p,q>1; λ,μ>0. Using sub- and supersolution method and based on an adaptation of the dual variational approach, we prove the existence of at least two nontrivial positive solutions for all λ,μ∈(0,λ₁) and ε,δ∈(0,δ₀), where λ₁ is the first eigenvalue of the Laplace operator −Δ with zero Dirichlet boundary conditions and δ₀ is a positive number.     

Boundary behaviour of the unique solution to a singular Dirichlet problem with a convection term

By Karamata regular variation theory and constructing comparison functions, we derive that the boundary behaviour of the unique solution to a singular Dirichlet problem −Δu=b(x)g(u)+λq|∇u|, u>0, x∈Ω, u_|∂Ω=0, which is independent of λq|∇uλ|, where Ω is a bounded domain with smooth boundary in RN, λ∈R, q∈(0,2], lims→⁰⁺g(s)=+∞, and b is non-negative on Ω, which may be vanishing on the boundary.     

Local “superlinearity” and “sublinearity” for the p-Laplacian

We study the existence, nonexistence and multiplicity of positive solutions for a family of problems −Δpu=fλ(x,u), , where Ω is a bounded domain in RN, N>p, and λ>0 is a parameter. The family we consider includes the well-known nonlinearities of Ambrosetti-Brezis-Cerami type in a more general form, namely λa(x)uq+b(x)ur, where 0?q<p−1<r?p^∗−1. Here the coefficient a(x) is assumed to be nonnegative but b(x) is allowed to change sign, even in the critical case. Preliminary results of independent interest include the extension to the p-Laplacian context of the Brezis-Nirenberg result on local minimization in and , a C1,α estimate for equations of the form −Δpu=h(x,u) with h of critical growth, a strong comparison result for the p-Laplacian, and a variational approach to the method of upper-lower solutions for the p-Laplacian.     

Local existence of solutions to some degenerate parabolic equation associated with the p-Laplacian

The existence of local (in time) solutions of the initial-boundary value problem for the following degenerate parabolic equation: ut(x,t)−Δpu(x,t)−|u|^q−2u(x,t)=f(x,t), (x,t)∈Ω×(0,T), where 2?p<q<+∞, Ω is a bounded domain in RN, is given and Δp denotes the so-called p-Laplacian defined by Δpu:=∇⋅(|∇u|^p−2∇u), with initial data u₀∈Lr(Ω) is proved under r>N(q−p)/p without imposing any smallness on u₀ and f. To this end, the above problem is reduced into the Cauchy problem for an evolution equation governed by the difference of two subdifferential operators in a reflexive Banach space, and the theory of subdifferential operators and potential well method are employed to establish energy estimates. Particularly, Lr-estimates of solutions play a crucial role to construct a time-local solution and reveal the dependence of the time interval [0,T₀] in which the problem admits a solution. More precisely, T₀ depends only on Lr|u₀| and f.     

Existence and multiplicity of solutions for quasilinear nonhomogeneous problems: An Orlicz-Sobolev space setting

We study the boundary value problem −div(log(1+q|∇u|)|∇u|^p−2∇u)=f(u) in Ω, u=0 on ∂Ω, where Ω is a bounded domain in RN with smooth boundary. We distinguish the cases where either f(u)=−λ|u|^p−2u+|u|^r−2u or f(u)=λ|u|^p−2u−|u|^r−2u, with p, q>1, p+q<min{N,r}, and r<(Np−N+p)/(N−p). In the first case we show the existence of infinitely many weak solutions for any λ>0. In the second case we prove the existence of a nontrivial weak solution if λ is sufficiently large. Our approach relies on adequate variational methods in Orlicz-Sobolev spaces.     

Entire solutions of quasilinear elliptic equations

We study entire solutions of non-homogeneous quasilinear elliptic equations, with Eqs. (1) and (2) below being typical. A particular special case of interest is the following: Let u be an entire distribution solution of the equation Δpu=|u|^q−1u, where p>1. If q>p−1 then u≡0. On the other hand, if 0<q<p−1 and u(x)=o(|x|^{p/(p−q−1)}) as |x|→∞, then again u≡0. If q=p−1 then u≡0 for all solutions with at most algebraic growth at infinity.     

Isolated singularities of solutions to quasi-linear elliptic equations with absorption

We study the problem of removability of isolated singularities for a general second-order quasi-linear equation in divergence form −divA(x,u,∇u)+a₀(x,u)+g(x,u)=0 in a punctured domain Ω?{0}, where Ω is a domain in Rn, n?3. The model example is the equation −Δpu+gu|u|^p−2+u|u|^q−1=0, q>p−1>0, p<n. Assuming that the lower-order terms satisfy certain non-linear Kato-type conditions, we prove that for all point singularities of the above equation are removable, thus extending the seminal result of Brezis and Véron.     

Isolated singularities for weighted quasilinear elliptic equations

We classify all the possible asymptotic behavior at the origin for positive solutions of quasilinear elliptic equations of the form div(|∇u|^p−2∇u)=b(x)h(u) in Ω?{0}, where 1<p?N and Ω is an open subset of RN with 0∈Ω. Our main result provides a sharp extension of a well-known theorem of Friedman and Véron for h(u)=uq and b(x)≡1, and a recent result of the authors for p=2 and b(x)≡1. We assume that the function h is regularly varying at ∞ with index q (that is, limt→∞h(λt)/h(t)=λq for every λ>0) and the weight function b(x) behaves near the origin as a function b₀(|x|) varying regularly at zero with index θ greater than −p. This condition includes b(x)=θ|x| and some of its perturbations, for instance, b(x)=θ|x|m(−log|x|) for any m∈R. Our approach makes use of the theory of regular variation and a new perturbation method for constructing sub- and super-solutions.     

Uniqueness of positive solutions for a class of elliptic systems

In this article, we consider uniqueness of positive radial solutions to the elliptic system Δu+a(|x|)f(u,v)=0, Δv+b(|x|)g(u,v)=0, subject to the Dirichlet boundary condition on the open unit ball in RN (N?2). Our uniqueness results applies to, for instance, f(u,v)=uqvp, g(u,v)=upvq, p,q>0, p+q<1 or more general cases.     

Remarks on large solutions of a class of semilinear elliptic equations

In this paper, we show existence, uniqueness and exact asymptotic behavior of solutions near the boundary to a class of semilinear elliptic equations −Δu=λg(u)−b(x)f(u) in Ω, where λ is a real number, b(x)>0 in Ω and vanishes on ∂Ω. The special feature is to consider g(u) and f(u) to be regularly varying at infinity and b(x) is vanishing on the boundary with a more general rate function. The vanishing rate of b(x) determines the exact blow-up rate of the large solutions. And the exact blow-up rate allows us to obtain the uniqueness result.     

Large time behavior of solutions to degenerate parabolic equations with weights

We study the degenerate parabolic equation t_∂u=a(δ(x))upΔu−g(u) in Ω×(0,∞), where Ω⊂RN (N?1) is a smooth bounded domain, p?1, δ(x)=dist(x,∂Ω) and a is a continuous nondecreasing function such that a(0)=0. Under some suitable assumptions on a and g we prove the existence and the uniqueness of a classical solution and we study its asymptotic behavior as t→∞.     

Some Schroeder-Bernstein type theorems for Banach spaces

We first introduce the notion of (p,q,r)-complemented subspaces in Banach spaces, where p,q,r∈N. Then, given a couple of triples {(p,q,r),(s,t,u)} in N and putting Λ=(q+r−p)(t+u−s)−ru, we prove partially the following conjecture: For every pair of Banach spaces X and Y such that X is (p,q,r)-complemented in Y and Y is (s,t,u)-complemented in X, we have that X is isomorphic Y if and only if one of the following conditions holds:

(a)

Λ≠0, Λ divides p−q and s−t, p=1 or q=1 or s=1 or t=1.

(b)

p=q=s=t=1 and gcd(r,u)=1.

The case {(2,1,1),(2,1,1)} is the well-known Pe?czyński's decomposition method. Our result leads naturally to some generalizations of the Schroeder-Bernstein problem for Banach spaces solved by W.T. Gowers in 1996.     

Existence and Nonexistence of Entire Positive Solutions of Semilinear Elliptic Systems

We show that entire positive solutions exist for the semilinear elliptic system Δu = p(x)v^α, Δv = q(x)u^β on R^N, N ≥ 3, for positive α and β, provided that the nonnegative functions p and q are continuous and satisfy appropriate decay conditions at infinity. We also show that entire solutions fail to exist if the functions p and q are of slow decay.     

Existence of a unique solution to a quasilinear elliptic equation

The purpose of this paper is to prove the existence of a unique classical solution u(x) to the quasilinear elliptic equation −∇⋅(a(u)∇u)+v⋅∇u=f, where u(x₀)=u₀ at x₀∈Ω and where n⋅∇u=g on the boundary ∂Ω. We prove that if the functions a, f, v, g satisfy certain conditions, then a unique classical solution u(x) exists. Applications include stationary heat/diffusion problems with convection and with a source/sink, where the value of the solution is known at a spatial location x₀∈Ω, and where n⋅∇u is known on the boundary.