Liouville Systems of Mean Field Equations

In this article, we discuss the recent work of Lin and Zhang on the Liouville system of mean field equations: $$\Delta{u}_i+\sum_{j}a_{ij}\rho_{j} ({\frac{{h_j}e^{u_{j}}}{\int_{M}{h_{j}e^{u_{j}}}}-{\frac{1}{|M|}}})=0\,\, \quad{\rm on}\, M,$$ where M is a compact Riemann surface and |M| is the area, or $$\Delta{u}_i+\sum_{j}a_{ij}\rho_{j} \frac{{h_j}e^{u_{j}}}{\int_{\Omega}{h_{j}e^{u_{j}}}}=0\,\, \quad{\rm in}\, \Omega,$$ $${u_j}=0,\,\, \quad{\rm on}\, \partial\Omega, $$ where ?? is a bounded domain in ${\mathbb{R}^2}$ . Among other things, we completely determine the set of non-critical parameters and derive a degree counting formula for these systems.     

Profile of the least energy solution of a singular perturbed Neumann problem with mixed powers

We consider the problem ${\varepsilon^{2}\Delta u - u^q + u^p = 0\,{\rm in}\,\Omega,\,u > 0\,{\rm in}\,\Omega,\,\frac{\partial u}{\partial \nu} = 0\,{\rm on}\,\partial\Omega }$ where Ω is a smooth bounded domain in ${\mathbb{R}^N}$ , ${1 < q < p < {N+2\over N-2}}$ if N ≥ 2 and ${\varepsilon}$ is a small positive parameter. We determine the location and shape of the least energy solution when ${\varepsilon \rightarrow 0.}$      

Radial and non radial solutions for Hardy–Hénon type elliptic systems

We discuss existence and non-existence of positive solutions for the following system of Hardy and Hénon type: $$\left\{\begin{array}{ll} {-\Delta v=|x|^{\alpha}u^{p},\,-\Delta u=|x|^{\beta}v^{q} \,\,{\rm in}\, \Omega,}\\ {u=v=0 \quad\quad\quad\quad\quad\quad\quad\quad\quad{\rm on}\, \partial \Omega}, \end{array}\right.$$ where ${\Omega\ni 0}$ is a bounded domain in ${\mathbb{R}^{N}}$ , N ≥ 3, p, q > 1, and α, β > ?N. We also study symmetry breaking for ground states when Ω is the unit ball in ${\mathbb{R}^{N}}$ .     

Existence and multiplicity results for Pucci’s operators involving nonlinearities with zeros

We study the problem $$ \left\{\begin{array}{ll} {-\varepsilon^{2}\mathcal{M}^+_{\lambda,\Lambda}(D^{2}u) = f (x, u)} \quad\; {\rm in} \; \Omega,\\ {u = 0} \quad\quad\quad\quad\quad\quad\quad\quad\quad\quad {\rm on} \; \partial{\Omega}, \end{array} \right.$$ where Ω is a smooth bounded domain in ${\mathbb{R}^{N},N > 2,}$ and show it possesses nontrivial solutions for small values of ε provided f is a nonnegative continuous function which has a positive zero. The multiplicity result is based on degree theory together with a new Liouville type theorem for ${-{M}^+_{\lambda,\Lambda}(D^{2}u) = f(u)}$ in ${\mathbb{R}^{N}}$ for nonnegative nonlinearities with zeros.     

Existence and Multiplicity Results for Some Elliptic Systems in Unbounded Cylinders

We study the following nonlinear elliptic system of Lane–Emden type $$\left\{\begin{array}{ll} -\Delta u = {\rm sgn}(v) |v| ^{p-1} \qquad \qquad \qquad \; {\rm in} \; \Omega , \\ -\Delta v = - \lambda {\rm sgn} (u)|u| \frac{1}{p-1} + f(x, u)\; \; {\rm in}\; \Omega , \\ u = v = 0 \qquad \qquad \qquad \quad \quad \;\;\;\;\; {\rm on}\; \partial \Omega , \end{array}\right.$$ where ${\lambda \in \mathbb{R}}$ . If ${\lambda \geq 0}$ and ${\Omega}$ is an unbounded cylinder, i.e., ${\Omega = \tilde \Omega \times \mathbb{R}^{N-m} \subset \mathbb{R}^{N}}$ , ${N - m \geq 2, m \geq 1}$ , existence and multiplicity results are proved by means of the Principle of Symmetric Criticality and some compact imbeddings in partially spherically symmetric spaces. We are able to state existence and multiplicity results also if ${\lambda \in \mathbb{R}}$ and ${\Omega}$ is a bounded domain in ${\mathbb{R}^{N}, N \geq 3}$ . In particular, a good finite dimensional decomposition of the Banach space in which we work is given.     

Exact multiplicity results for a singularly perturbed Neumann problem

In this paper we study the number of the boundary single peak solutions of the problem $$\left\{\begin{array}{ll} -\varepsilon^{2} \Delta u + u = u^{p}, \quad {\rm in}\, \Omega \\ u > 0, \quad\quad\quad\quad\quad\quad {\rm in}\, \Omega \\ \frac{\partial u}{\partial {\nu}} = 0, \quad\quad\quad\quad\quad\,\,\, {\rm on}\, \partial {\Omega}\end{array}\right.$$ for ${\varepsilon}$ small and p subcritical. Under some suitable assumptions on the shape of the boundary near a critical point of the mean curvature, we are able to prove exact multiplicity results. Note that the degeneracy of the critical point is allowed.     

Sign-definiteness of q-eigenfunctions for a super-linear p-Laplacian eigenvalue problem

We consider the following q-eigenvalue problem for the p-Laplacian $$\left\{\begin{array}{ll}-{\rm div}\big( |\nabla u|^{p-2}\nabla u\big) = \lambda \|u\|_{L^{q}(\Omega)}^{p-q}|u|^{q-2}u \quad \quad\, {\rm in} \,\,\,\, \Omega\\ \quad\quad\quad \quad \quad \quad u = 0 \quad\qquad\qquad \quad\quad \,\,{\rm on } \,\,\,\, \partial\Omega,\end{array}\right.$$ where \({\lambda\in\mathbb{R},}\) p > 1, Ω is a bounded and smooth domain of \({\mathbb{R}^{N},}\) N > 1, \({1\leq q < p^{\star}}\) , \({p^{\star}=\frac{Np}{N-p}}\) if p < N and \({p^{\star}=\infty}\) if \({p\geq N.}\) Let λ _q denote the first q-eigenvalue. We prove that in the super-linear case, \({p < q < p^{\star},}\) there exists \({\epsilon_{q}>0}\) such that if \({\lambda\in(\lambda_{q},\lambda _{q}+\epsilon_{q})}\) is a q-eigenvalue, then any corresponding q-eigenfunction does not change sign in Ω. As a consequence of this result we obtain, in the super-linear case, the isolatedness of λ _q for those Ω such that the Lane–Emden problem $$\left\{\begin{array}{ll}-{\rm div}\big(|\nabla u|^{p-2}\nabla u\big) = |u|^{q-2}u \qquad\quad\quad\quad \,\,{\rm in}\,\,\,\Omega\\ \quad\quad\quad \quad \quad \quad u = 0 \quad\qquad\qquad \quad\quad \,{\rm on } \,\,\, \partial\Omega,\end{array}\right.$$ has exactly one positive solution.     

Isolated boundary singularities of semilinear elliptic equations

Given a smooth domain ${\Omega\subset\mathbb{R}^N}$ such that ${0 \in \partial\Omega}$ and given a nonnegative smooth function ?? on ???, we study the behavior near 0 of positive solutions of ???u?=?u ^q in ?? such that u =? ?? on ???\{0}. We prove that if ${\frac{N+1}{N-1} < q < \frac{N+2}{N-2}}$ , then ${u(x)\leq C |x|^{-\frac{2}{q-1}}}$ and we compute the limit of ${|x|^{\frac{2}{q-1}} u(x)}$ as x ?? 0. We also investigate the case ${q= \frac{N+1}{N-1}}$ . The proofs rely on the existence and uniqueness of solutions of related equations on spherical domains.     

Existence and Multiplicity of Positive Solutions to a Quasilinear Elliptic Equation with Strong Allee Effect Growth Rate

In this paper we consider a p-Laplacian equation with strong Allee effect growth rate and Dirichlet boundary condition $$\left\{\begin{array}{ll} {\rm div} (|\nabla u|^{p-2} \nabla u) + \lambda f(x,u)=0, &\quad x \in \Omega, \\ u=0, &\quad x \in \partial \Omega, \qquad \qquad ^ {(P_\lambda)} \end{array}\right.$$ where Ω is a bounded smooth domain in ${\mathbb{R}^N}$ for ${N \ge 1, p > 1}$ , and λ is a positive parameter. By using variational methods and a suitable truncation technique, we prove that problem (P _λ) has at least two positive solutions for large parameter and it has no positive solutions for small parameter. In addition, a nonexistence result is investigated.     

A remark on global existence of solutions of shadow systems

Let ?? be an open, bounded domain in ${\mathbb{R}^n\;(n \in \mathbb{N})}$ with smooth boundary ???. Let p, q, r, d ₁, ?? be positive real numbers and s be a non-negative number which satisfies ${0 < \frac{p-1}{r} < \frac{q}{s+1}}$ . We consider the shadow system of the well-known Gierer?CMeinhardt system: $$ \left \{ \begin{array}{l@{\quad}l} \displaystyle{u_t = d_1\Delta u - u + \frac{u^p}{\xi^q}}, & \quad {\rm in}\;\Omega \times (0,T), \\ \displaystyle{\tau \xi_t = -\xi + \frac{1}{|\Omega|} \int\nolimits_\Omega\frac{u^r}{\xi^s} {\rm d}x}, & \quad {\rm in}\;(0,T), \\ \displaystyle{\frac{\partial u}{\partial \nu} =0}, & \quad {\rm on}\;\partial \Omega \times (0,T), \\ \displaystyle{\xi(0) = \xi_0 >0 , \quad u(\cdot,0) = u_0(\cdot)} \geq 0 & \quad {\rm in}\;\Omega. \end{array} \right. $$ We prove that solutions of this system exist globally in time under some conditions on the coefficients. Our results are based on a priori estimates of the solutions and improve the global existence results of Li and Ni in [4].     

Limits as p → ∞ of p-laplacian eigenvalue problems perturbed with a concave or convex term

We investigate the asymptotic behaviour as p → ∞ of sequences of positive weak solutions of the equation $$\left\{\begin{array}{l}-\Delta_p u = \lambda\,u^{p-1}+ u^{q(p)-1}\quad {\rm in}\quad \Omega,\\ u = 0 \quad {\rm on}\quad \partial\Omega,\end{array} \right.$$ where λ > 0 and either 1 < q(p) < p or p < q(p), with ${{\lim_{p\to\infty}{q(p)}/{p}=Q\neq1}}$ . Uniform limits are characterized as positive viscosity solutions of the problem $$\left\{\begin{array}{l}\min\left\{|\nabla u (x)| - \max\{\Lambda\,u (x),u ^Q(x)\}, -\Delta_{\infty}u (x)\right\} = 0 \quad {\rm in} \quad \Omega,\\ u = 0\quad {\rm on}\quad \partial\Omega.\end{array}\right.$$ for appropriate values of Λ > 0. Due to the decoupling of the nonlinearity under the limit process, the limit problem exhibits an intermediate behavior between an eigenvalue problem and a problem with a power-like right-hand side. Existence and non-existence results for both the original and the limit problems are obtained.     

Multiple positive solutions of singular and critical elliptic problem in {\mathbb{R}^2} with discontinuous nonlinearities

Let Ω be a bounded domain in ${\mathbb{R}^2}$ with smooth boundary. We consider the following singular and critical elliptic problem with discontinuous nonlinearity: $$(P_\lambda)\left \{\begin{array}{ll} - \Delta u = \lambda \left(\frac{m(x, u) e^{\alpha{u}^2}}{|x|^{\beta}} + u^{q}g(u - a)\right),\quad{u} > 0 \quad {\rm in} \quad \Omega\\u \quad \quad = 0\quad {\rm on} \quad \partial \Omega \end{array}\right.$$ where ${0\leq q < 1 ,0< \alpha\leq4\pi}$ and ${\beta \in [0, 2)}$ such that ${\frac{\beta}{2} + \frac{\alpha}{4\pi} \leq 1}$ and ${{g(t - a) = \left\{\begin{array}{ll}1, t \leq a\\ 0, t > a.\end{array}\right.}}$ Under the suitable assumptions on m(x, t) we show the existence and multiplicity of solutions for maximal interval for λ.     

Continuity of solutions to n-harmonic equations

In this paper, we study the nonhomogeneous n-harmonic equation $$-{\rm div}\,(|{\nabla} u|^{n-2}{\nabla} u)=f$$ in domains ${\Omega\subset {\mathbb {R}^n}}$ (n?≥?2), where ${f\in W^{-1,\frac{n}{n-1}}(\Omega)}$ . We derive a sharp condition to guarantee the continuity of solutions u. In particular, we show that when n?≥ 3, the condition that, for some ${\epsilon >0 ,}$ f belongs to $${\mathfrak{L}}({\rm log}\,{\mathfrak{L}})^{n-1}({\rm log}\,{\rm log}\,{\mathfrak{L}})^{n-2}\cdots({\rm log}\cdots{\rm log}\,{\mathfrak{L}})^{n-2}({\rm log}\cdots{\rm log}\,{\mathfrak{L}})^{n-2+\epsilon}(\Omega)$$ is sufficient for continuity of u, but not for ${\epsilon=0}$ .     

Perturbed asymptotically linear problems

The aim of this paper is to investigate the existence of solutions of the semilinear elliptic problem $$\left\{\begin{array}{ll} -\Delta u\ =\ p(x, u) + \varepsilon g(x, u)\quad {\rm in}\,\, \Omega, \\ u=0 \quad\quad\quad\quad\quad\quad\quad\quad\quad\,\,\,\,\,\,{\rm on}\,\, \partial\Omega, \end{array} \right. \quad\quad\quad(0.1) $$ where Ω is an open bounded domain of ${\mathbb{R}^N}$ , ${\varepsilon\in\mathbb{R}, p}$ is subcritical and asymptotically linear at infinity, and g is just a continuous function. Even when this problem has not a variational structure on ${H^1_0(\Omega)}$ , suitable procedures and estimates allow us to prove that the number of distinct critical levels of the functional associated to the unperturbed problem is “stable” under small perturbations, in particular obtaining multiplicity results if p is odd, both in the non-resonant and in the resonant case.     

Changing-sign bubble solutions for an anisotropic sinh-Poisson equation

We consider the following anisotropic sinh-Poisson equation $${\rm div} (a(x) \nabla u)+ 2\varepsilon^2 a(x) {\rm sinh}\,u=0\ \ {\rm in}\ \Omega, \quad u=0 \ \ {\rm on}\ \partial \Omega,$$ where ${\Omega \subset \mathbb{R}^2}$ is a bounded smooth domain and a(x) is a positive smooth function. We investigate the effect of anisotropic coefficient ${a(x)}$ on the existence of bubbling solutions. We show that there exists a family of solutions u _?? concentrating positively and negatively at ${\bar{x}}$ , a given local critical point of a(x), for ?? sufficiently small, for which with the property $$2\varepsilon^2a(x){\rm sinh} u_\varepsilon \rightharpoonup 8\pi\sum\limits_{j=1}^{m}b_j\delta_{\bar{x}},$$ where ${b_j=\pm 1}$ . This result shows a striking difference with the isotropic case (a(x) ?? Constant) in Bartolucci and Pistoia (IMA J Appl Math 72(6):706?C729, 2007), Jost et?al. (Calc Var Partial Differ Equ 31:263?C276, 2008) and Esposito and Wei (Calc Var Partial Differ Equ 34:341?C375, 2009).     

Strong Regularizing Effect of a Gradient Term in the Heat Equation with a Weight

We deal with the following parabolic problem, $$(P)\left\{\begin{array}{lll} u_t - \Delta{u} + |\nabla{u}|^q \quad=\quad \lambda{g}(x)u + f(x, t),\quad u > 0 \; {\rm in} \; \Omega \; \times \; (0, T),\\ \qquad\quad\quad\; u(x, t) \quad=\quad 0 \quad{\rm on}\; {\partial}{\Omega}\; \times ; (0, T),\\ \qquad\quad\quad\; u(x, 0) \quad=\quad u_{0}(x), \quad x \in {\Omega},\end{array}\right.$$ where is a bounded regular domain or ${\Omega = \mathbb{R}^N}$ , ${1 < q \leq 2, \lambda > 0\; {\rm and}\; f \geq 0, u_{0} \geq 0}$ are in a suitable class of functions. We give assumptions on g with respect to q for which for all λ >  0 and all ${f \in L^1(\Omega_T ), f \geq 0}$ , problem (P) has a positive solution. Under some additional conditions on the data, the Cauchy problem and the asymptotic behavior of the solution are also considered.     

Nonlinear elliptic problems with a singular weight on the boundary

We study existence of solutions to $$-\Delta u = \frac{u^p}{|x|^2}\quad u\, >\,0 \,{\rm in }\,\Omega$$ with u?=?0 on ???, where ?? is a smooth bounded domain in ${\mathbb {R}^N}$ , N??? 3 with ${0\,\in\,\partial \Omega}$ and ${1< p < \frac{N+2}{N-2}}$ . The existence of solutions depends on the geometry of the domain. On one hand, if the domain is starshaped with respect to the origin there are no energy solutions. On the other hand, in dumbbell domains via a perturbation argument, the equation has solutions.     

Topological degree for solutions of fourth order mean field equations

We consider the following fourth order mean field equation with Navier boundary condition $$\Delta^2 u = \rho \frac{h(x) e^{u}}{\int_\Omega h e^{u}}\,\,{\rm in}\, \Omega,{\quad}u = \Delta u = 0\,\,{\rm on}\,\partial \Omega,\quad\quad\quad\quad\quad\quad\quad\quad\quad\quad(*)$$ where h is a C ^2,?? positive function, ?? is a bounded and smooth domain in ${\mathbb{R}^4}$ . We prove that for ${\rho \in (32m\sigma_3, 32(m + 1)\sigma_3)}$ the degree-counting formula for (*) is given by $$d(\rho)=\left\{\begin{array}{ll}\frac{1}{m!} (-\chi (\Omega) +1) \cdot\cdot \cdot (-\chi(\Omega)+m) & {\rm for}\, m >0 ,\\ 1 & {\rm for}\, m=0\end{array}\right.$$ where ??(??) is the Euler characteristic of ??. Similar result is also proved for the corresponding Dirichlet problem $$\Delta^2 u = \rho \frac{h(x) e^{u}}{\int_\Omega h e^{u}}\quad{\rm in}\,\Omega, \quad u = \nabla u = 0 \quad {\rm on}\,\,\partial \Omega.\quad\quad\quad\quad\quad\quad\quad\quad\quad\quad(**)$$      

Relaxation of signed integral functionals in BV

For integral functionals initially defined for ${u \in {\rm W}^{1,1}(\Omega; \mathbb{R}^m)}$ by $$\int_{\Omega} f(\nabla u) \, {\rm d}x$$ we establish strict continuity and relaxation results in ${{\rm BV}(\Omega; \mathbb{R}^m)}$ . The results cover the case of signed continuous integrands ${f : \mathbb{R}^{m \times d} \to \mathbb{R}}$ of linear growth at infinity. In particular, it is not excluded that the integrands are unbounded below.