On general boundary-value problems for nonlinear elliptic equations of second order in a multiply connected plane domain

This paper deals with some general irregular oblique derivative problems for nonlinear uniformly elliptic equations of second order in a multiply connected plane domain. Firstly, we state the well-posedness of a new set of modified boundary conditions. Secondly, we verify the existence of solutions of the modified boundary-value problem for harmonic functions, and then prove the solvability of the modified problem for nonlinear elliptic equations, which includes the original boundary-value problem (i.e. boundary conditions without involving undertermined functions data). Here, mainly, the location of the zeros of analytic functions, a priori estimates for solutions and the continuity method are used in deriving all these results. Furthermore, the present approach and setting seems to be new and different from what has been employed before.The research was partially supported by a UPGC Grant of Hong Kong.     

Nonlinear eigenvalues for anisotropic quasilinear degenerate elliptic equations

We consider the Dirichlet problem for a class of anisotropic degenerate elliptic equations.     

Oblique boundary value problems for equations of Monge-Ampère type

We prove the existence of classical solutions of elliptic equations of Monge-Ampère type subject to a semilinear oblique boundary condition which is a perturbation of the Neumann boundary condition. Our techniques also allow us to treat fully nonlinear strictly oblique boundary conditions satisfying a concavity condition. Examples show that the above restrictions on the boundary condition are generally necessary for the existence of classical solutions. Received May 22, 1996 / Accepted April 10, 1997     

The problem of Dirichlet for anisotropic quasilinear degenerate elliptic equations

We consider the Dirichlet problem for a class of anisotropic degenerate elliptic equations. New a priori estimates for solutions and for the gradient of solutions are established. Based on these estimates sufficient conditions guaranteeing the solvability of the problem are formulated. The results are new even in the semilinear case when the principal part is the Laplace operator.     

Uniqueness and exact multiplicity of solutions for a class of Dirichlet problems

We apply the “monotone separation of graphs” technique of L.A. Peletier and J. Serrin [L.A. Peletier, J. Serrin, Uniqueness of positive solutions of semilinear equations in Rn, Arch. Ration. Mech. Anal. 81 (2) (1983) 181-197; L.A. Peletier, J. Serrin, Uniqueness of nonnegative solutions of semilinear equations in Rn, J. Differential Equations 61 (3) (1986) 380-397], as developed further by L. Erbe and M. Tang [L. Erbe, M. Tang, Structure of positive radial solutions of semilinear elliptic equations, J. Differential Equations 133 (2) (1997) 179-202], to the question of exact multiplicity of positive solutions for a class of semilinear equations on a unit ball in Rn. We also observe that using P. Pucci and J. Serrin [P. Pucci, J. Serrin, Uniqueness of ground states for quasilinear elliptic operators, Indiana Univ. Math. J. 47 (2) (1998) 501-528] improvement of a certain identity of L. Erbe and M. Tang [L. Erbe, M. Tang, Structure of positive radial solutions of semilinear elliptic equations, J. Differential Equations 133 (2) (1997) 179-202] produces a short proof of L. Erbe and M. Tang [L. Erbe, M. Tang, Structure of positive radial solutions of semilinear elliptic equations, J. Differential Equations 133 (2) (1997) 179-202] result on the uniqueness of positive solution of (1<p, )

     

A class of quasilinear degenerate elliptic problems

We establish the existence of solutions for a class of quasilinear degenerate elliptic equations. The equations in this class satisfy a structure condition which provides ellipticity in the interior of the domain, and degeneracy only on the boundary. Equations of transonic gas dynamics, for example, satisfy this property in the region of subsonic flow and are degenerate across the sonic surface. We prove that the solution is smooth in the interior of the domain but may exhibit singular behavior at the degenerate boundary. The maximal rate of blow-up at the degenerate boundary is bounded by the “degree of degeneracy” in the principal coefficients of the quasilinear elliptic operator. Our methods and results apply to the problems recently studied by several authors which include the unsteady transonic small disturbance equation, the pressure-gradient equations of the compressible Euler equations, and the singular quasilinear anisotropic elliptic problems, and extend to the class of equations which satisfy the structure condition, such as the shallow water equation, compressible isentropic two-dimensional Euler equations, and general two-dimensional nonlinear wave equations. Our study provides a general framework to analyze degenerate elliptic problems arising in the self-similar reduction of a broad class of two-dimensional Cauchy problems.     

Existence and regularity of multiple solutions for infinitely degenerate nonlinear elliptic equations with singular potential

In this paper, we study the Dirichlet problem for a class of infinitely degenerate nonlinear elliptic equations with singular potential term. By using the logarithmic Sobolev inequality and Hardy's inequality, the existence and regularity of multiple nontrivial solutions have been proved.     

Quasilinear parabolic and elliptic equations with nonlinear boundary conditions

This paper is concerned with a class of quasilinear parabolic and elliptic equations in a bounded domain with both Dirichlet and nonlinear Neumann boundary conditions. The equation under consideration may be degenerate or singular depending on the property of the diffusion coefficient. The consideration of the class of equations is motivated by some heat-transfer problems where the heat capacity and thermal conductivity are both temperature dependent. The aim of the paper is to show the existence and uniqueness of a global time-dependent solution of the parabolic problem, existence of maximal and minimal steady-state solutions of the elliptic problem, including conditions for the uniqueness of a solution, and the asymptotic behavior of the time-dependent solution in relation to the steady-state solutions. Applications are given to some heat-transfer problems and an extended logistic reaction–diffusion equation.     

Hardy–Sobolev inequalities in half-space and some semilinear elliptic equations with singular coefficients

We study some semilinear elliptic equations with singular coefficients which relate to some Hardy–Sobolev inequalities. We obtain some existence results for these equations and give a theorem for prescribing the Palais–Smale sequence for these equations. Moreover, we find some interesting connections between these equations and some semilinear elliptic equations in hyperbolic space. Using these connections, we obtain many new results for these equations.     

On a frequency function approach to the unique continuation principle

In this survey we discuss the frequency function method so as to study the problem of unique continuation for elliptic partial differential equations. The methods used in the note were mainly introduced by Garofalo and Lin.     

Degenerate nonlinear higher-order elliptic problems in domains with fine-grained boundary

We study the convergence of the solutions of the Dirichlet problem associated to a degenerate nonlinear higher-order elliptic equations in divergence form in variables domains, to a limit solution of the same type problem in a fixed domain, following the methods of the asymptotic expansion developed by Skrypnik [Methods for Analysis of Nonlinear Elliptic Boundary Value Problems, AMS, Providence, RI, 1994] modified to weighted higher-order case.     

Existence and instability of spike layer solutions to singular perturbation problems

An abstract framework is given to establish the existence and compute the Morse index of spike layer solutions of singularly perturbed semilinear elliptic equations. A nonlinear Lyapunov-Schmidt scheme is used to reduce the problem to one on a normally hyperbolic manifold, and the related linearized problem is also analyzed using this reduction. As an application, we show the existence of a multi-peak spike layer solution with peaks on the boundary of the domain, and we also obtain precise estimates of the small eigenvalues of the operator obtained by linearizing at a spike layer solution.     

Boundary behaviour for solutions of elliptic singular equations with a gradient term

We investigate the homogeneous Dirichlet boundary value problem for a class of second-order nonlinear elliptic partial differential equations with a gradient term and singular data. Under general conditions on the data, we study the behaviour of the solution near the boundary of the domain. Under suitable additional conditions we also investigate the second-order term in the asymptotic expansion of the solution in terms of the distance from the boundary.     

Liouville-type theorems and decay estimates for solutions to higher order elliptic equations

Liouville-type theorems are powerful tools in partial differential equations. Boundedness assumptions of solutions are often imposed in deriving such Liouville-type theorems. In this paper, we establish some Liouville-type theorems without the boundedness assumption of nonnegative solutions to certain classes of elliptic equations and systems. Using a rescaling technique and doubling lemma developed recently in Polá?ik et al. (2007) [20], we improve several Liouville-type theorems in higher order elliptic equations, some semilinear equations and elliptic systems. More specifically, we remove the boundedness assumption of the solutions which is required in the proofs of the corresponding Liouville-type theorems in the recent literature. Moreover, we also investigate the singularity and decay estimates of higher order elliptic equations.     

Smoothness of generalized solutions for higher-order elliptic equations with nonlocal boundary conditions

The smoothness of generalized solutions for higher-order elliptic equations with nonlocal boundary conditions is studied in plane domains. Necessary and sufficient conditions upon the right-hand side of the problem and nonlocal operators under which the generalized solutions possess an appropriate smoothness are established.     

Conditions for two-peaked solutions of singularly perturbed elliptic equations

We obtain necessary conditions for the existence of two-peaked solutions of singularly perturbed elliptic equations. These conditions are related to the geometry of the domain. In particular, we prove there are no two-peaked solutions in a strictly convex domain. Received: 20 January 1997 / Revised version: 2 December 1997     

Uniqueness and structure of solutions to the Dirichlet problem for an elliptic system

In this paper, we consider the Dirichlet problem for an elliptic system on a ball in R². By investigating the properties for the corresponding linearized equations of solutions, and adopting the Pohozaev identity and Implicit Function Theorem, we show the uniqueness and the structure of solutions.     

Blow-up and symmetry of sign-changing solutions to some critical elliptic equations

In this paper we continue the analysis of the blow-up of low energy sign-changing solutions of semi-linear elliptic equations with critical Sobolev exponent, started in [M. Ben Ayed, K. El Mehdi, F. Pacella, Blow-up and nonexistence of sign-changing solutions to the Brezis-Nirenberg problem in dimension three, Ann. Inst. H. Poincaré Anal. Non Linéaire, in press]. In addition we prove axial symmetry results for the same kind of solutions in a ball.     

On the least point of the spectrum of certain cooperative linear systems with a large parameter

We obtain the asymptotic limit of the principal eigenvalue of a cooperative system of linear elliptic equations as a parameter tends to infinity. Our results are much more general than those in the work of Caudevilla and López-Gómez (2008) [2]. We obtain an unusual limit problem.     

Multiplicity of solutions for a class of fourth elliptic equations

We show that there exist at least three nontrivial solutions for a class of fourth elliptic equations under Navier boundary conditions by linking approaches.