Locating the peaks of least-energy solutions to a quasilinear elliptic Neumann problem, Part II

We continue our work (Y. Li, C. Zhao, Locating the peaks of least-energy solutions to a quasilinear elliptic Neumann problem, J. Math. Anal. Appl. 336 (2007) 1368-1383) to study the shape of least-energy solutions to the quasilinear problem ε^mΔ_mu−u^m−1+f(u)=0 with homogeneous Neumann boundary condition. In this paper we focus on the case 1<m<2 as a complement to our previous work on the case m≥2. We use an intrinsic variation method to show that as the case m≥2, when ε→0⁺, the global maximum point P_ε of least-energy solutions goes to a point on the boundary ∂Ω at a rate of o(ε) and this point on the boundary approaches a global maximum point of mean curvature of ∂Ω.     

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.     

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.     

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.     

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.     

Existence and uniqueness of nonnegative solutions for a boundary blow-up problem

Assume that Ω is a bounded domain in RN (N?3) with smooth boundary ∂Ω. In this work, we study existence and uniqueness of blow-up solutions for the problem −Δp(u)+c(x)|∇u|^p−1+F(x,u)=0 in Ω, where 2?p. Under some conditions related to the function F, we give a sufficient condition for existence and nonexistence of nonnegative blow-up solutions. We study also the uniqueness of these solutions.     

Quantitative unique continuation for the semilinear heat equation in a convex domain

In this paper, we study certain unique continuation properties for solutions of the semilinear heat equation t_∂u−△u=g(u), with the homogeneous Dirichlet boundary condition, over Ω×(0,T_∗). Ω is a bounded, convex open subset of Rd, with a smooth boundary for the subset. The function g:R→R satisfies certain conditions. We establish some observation estimates for (u−v), where u and v are two solutions to the above-mentioned equation. The observation is made over ω×{T}, where ω is any non-empty open subset of Ω, and T is a positive number such that both u and v exist on the interval [0,T]. At least two results can be derived from these estimates: (i) if ‖(u−v)(⋅,T)_‖L²(ω)=δ, then ‖(u−v)(⋅,T)_‖L²(Ω)?Cδα where constants C>0 and α∈(0,1) can be independent of u and v in certain cases; (ii) if two solutions of the above equation hold the same value over ω×{T}, then they coincide over Ω×[0,Tm). Tm indicates the maximum number such that these two solutions exist on [0,Tm).     

Layered stable equilibria of a reaction-diffusion equation with nonlinear Neumann boundary condition

In this work we investigate the existence and asymptotic profile of a family of layered stable stationary solutions to the scalar equation ut=ε²Δu+f(u) in a smooth bounded domain Ω⊂R³ under the boundary condition εν_∂u=δεg(u). It is assumed that Ω has a cross-section which locally minimizes area and limε→0εlnδε=κ, with 0?κ<∞ and δε>1 when κ=0. The functions f and g are of bistable type and do not necessarily have the same zeros what makes the asymptotic geometric profile of the solutions on the boundary to be different from the one in the interior.     

Variational reduction for Ginzburg-Landau vortices

Let Ω be a bounded domain with smooth boundary in R². We construct non-constant solutions to the complex-valued Ginzburg-Landau equation ε²Δu+(1−²|u|)u=0 in Ω, as ε→0, both under zero Neumann and Dirichlet boundary conditions. We reduce the problem of finding solutions having isolated zeros (vortices) with degrees ±1 to that of finding critical points of a small C¹-perturbation of the associated renormalized energy. This reduction yields general existence results for vortex solutions. In particular, for the Neumann problem, we find that if Ω is not simply connected, then for any k?1 a solution with exactly k vortices of degree one exists.     

Boundary singularities of solutions of N-harmonic equations with absorption

We study the boundary behaviour of solutions u of −ΔNu+|u|^q−1u=0 in a bounded smooth domain Ω⊂RN subject to the boundary condition u=0 except at one point, in the range q>N−1. We prove that if q?2N−1 such an u is identically zero, while, if N−1<q<2N−1, u inherits a boundary behaviour which either corresponds to a weak singularity, or to a strong singularity. Such singularities are effectively constructed.     

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.     

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.     

Convergence of the wave equation damped on the interior to the one damped on the boundary

In this paper, we study the convergence of the wave equation with variable internal damping term γn(x)ut to the wave equation with boundary damping γ(x)⊗δx∈∂Ωut when (γn(x)) converges to γ(x)⊗δx∈∂Ω in the sense of distributions. When the domain Ω in which these equations are defined is an interval in R, we show that, under natural hypotheses, the compact global attractor of the wave equation damped on the interior converges in X=H¹(Ω)×L²(Ω) to the one of the wave equation damped on the boundary, and that the dynamics on these attractors are equivalent. We also prove, in the higher-dimensional case, that the attractors are lower-semicontinuous in X and upper-semicontinuous in H1−ε(Ω)×H−ε(Ω).     

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.     

A basic inequality for the Stokes operator related to the Navier boundary condition

We show that ‖Au+Δu_‖L²(Ωε)?C(ε‖∇u_‖L²(Ωε)+‖u_‖L²(Ωε)), where Ωε is a thin domain in R³ of depth ε, the vector field u belongs to the domain of A, which is the Stokes operator for divergence-free vector fields on Ωε satisfying the Navier boundary condition.     

A singularly perturbed semilinear reaction-diffusion problem in a polygonal domain

The semilinear reaction-diffusion equation −ε²Δu+b(x,u)=0 with Dirichlet boundary conditions is considered in a convex polygonal domain. The singular perturbation parameter ε is arbitrarily small, and the “reduced equation” b(x,u₀(x))=0 may have multiple solutions. An asymptotic expansion for u is constructed that involves boundary and corner layer functions. By perturbing this asymptotic expansion, we obtain certain sub- and super-solutions and thus show the existence of a solution u that is close to the constructed asymptotic expansion. The polygonal boundary forces the study of the nonlinear autonomous elliptic equation −Δz+f(z)=0 posed in an infinite sector, and then well-posedness of the corresponding linearized problem.     

A uniqueness result for a semilinear elliptic problem: A computer-assisted proof

Starting with the famous article [A. Gidas, W.M. Ni, L. Nirenberg, Symmetry and related properties via the maximum principle, Comm. Math. Phys. 68 (1979) 209-243], many papers have been devoted to the uniqueness question for positive solutions of −Δu=λu+up in Ω, u=0 on ∂Ω, where p>1 and λ ranges between 0 and the first Dirichlet eigenvalue λ₁(Ω) of −Δ. For the case when Ω is a ball, uniqueness could be proved, mainly by ODE techniques. But very little is known when Ω is not a ball, and then only for λ=0. In this article, we prove uniqueness, for all λ∈[0,λ₁(Ω)), in the case Ω=²(0,1) and p=2. This constitutes the first positive answer to the uniqueness question in a domain different from a ball. Our proof makes heavy use of computer assistance: we compute a branch of approximate solutions and prove existence of a true solution branch close to it, using fixed point techniques. By eigenvalue enclosure methods, and an additional analytical argument for λ close to λ₁(Ω), we deduce the non-degeneracy of all solutions along this branch, whence uniqueness follows from the known bifurcation structure of the problem.     

Existence and non-existence of solutions for a class of Monge-Ampère equations

We study the boundary value problems for Monge-Ampère equations: detD²u=e−u in Ω⊂Rn, n?1, u_|∂Ω=0. First we prove that any solution on the ball is radially symmetric by the argument of moving plane. Then we show there exists a critical radius such that if the radius of a ball is smaller than this critical value there exists a solution, and vice versa. Using the comparison between domains we can prove that this phenomenon occurs for every domain. Finally we consider an equivalent problem with a parameter detD²u=e−tu in Ω, u_|∂Ω=0, t?0. By using Lyapunov-Schmidt reduction method we get the local structure of the solutions near a degenerate point; by Leray-Schauder degree theory, a priori estimate and bifurcation theory we get the global structure.     

Blow-up problem for semilinear heat equation with absorption and a nonlocal boundary condition

In this paper we consider a semilinear parabolic equation u_t=Δu−c(x,t)u^p for (x,t)∈Ω×(0,∞) with nonlinear and nonlocal boundary condition u∣_{∂Ω×(0,∞)}=∫_Ωk(x,y,t)u^ldy and nonnegative initial data where p>0 and l>0. We prove some global existence results. Criteria on this problem which determine whether the solutions blow up in finite time for large or for all nontrivial initial data are also given.     

Solutions concentrating at curves for some singularly perturbed elliptic problems

We study positive solutions of the equation ?ε²Δu+u=u^p, where p>1 and ε>0 is small, with Neumann boundary conditions in a three-dimensional domain $\text{Ω}$. We prove the existence of solutions concentrating along some closed curve on $\text{?Ω}$. To cite this article: A. Malchiodi, C. R. Acad. Sci. Paris, Ser. I 338 (2004).