Given a reflexive Banach space $X$, we consider a class of functionals $Φ\in C^1(X,\Re)$ that do not behave in a uniform way, in the sense that the map $t \mapsto Φ(tu)$, $t>0$, does not have a uniform geometry with respect to $u\in X$. Assuming instead such a uniform behavior within an open cone $Y \subset X \setminus \{0\}$, we show that $Φ$ has a ground state relative to $Y$. Some further conditions ensure that this relative ground state is the (absolute) ground state of $Φ$. Several applications to elliptic equations and systems are given.
We consider an elliptic pseudo differential equation in a multi-dimensional cone and starting wave factorization concept we add some boundary conditions. For the simplest cases explicit formulas for solution are given like layer potentials for classical case.
We discuss counterexamples to the validity of the weak Maximum Principle for linear elliptic systems with zero and first order couplings and prove, through a suitable reduction to a nonlinear scalar equation, a quite general result showing that some algebraic condition on the structure of gradient couplings and a cooperativity condition on the matrix of zero order couplings guarantee the existence of invariant cones in the sense of Weinberger [21].
We study the inequality $ -Δu - \fracμ{|x|^2} u \geq (|x|^{-α} * u^p)u^q$ in an unbounded cone $\mathcal{C}_Ω^ρ\subset \mathbb{R}^N$ ($N\geq 2$) generated by a subdomain $Ω$ of the unit sphere $S^{N-1}\subset \mathbb{R}^N,$ $p, q, ρ>0$, $μ\in \mathbb{R}$ and $0\leq α< N$. In the above, $|x|^{-α} * u^p$ denotes the standard convolution operator in the cone $\mathcal{C}_Ω^ρ$. We discuss the existence and nonexistence of positive solutions in terms of $N, p, q, α, μ$ and $Ω$. Extensions to systems of inequalities are also investigated.
Green's formulas for elliptic cone differential operators are established. This is done by an accurate description of the maximal domain of an elliptic cone differential operator and its formal adjoint, thereby utilizing the concept of a discrete asymptotic type. From this description, the singular coefficients replacing the boundary traces in classical Green's formulas are deduced.
We study positive supersolutions to an elliptic equation $(*)$: $-Δu=c|x|^{-s}u^p$, $p,s\in\bf R$ in cone-like domains in $\bf R^N$ ($N\ge 2$). We prove that in the sublinear case $p<1$ there exists a critical exponent $p_*<1$ such that equation $(*)$ has a positive supersolution if and only if $-\infty<p<p_*$. The value of $p_*$ is determined explicitly by $s$ and the geometry of the cone.
We present an overview of some of our recent results on the existence of rays of minimal growth for elliptic cone operators and two new results concerning the necessity of certain conditions for the existence of such rays.
These notes record the lectures for the CIME Summer Course taught by the first author in Cetraro during the week of June 19-23, 2017. The notes contain the proofs of several results on the classification of stable solutions to some nonlinear elliptic equations. The results are crucial steps within the regularity theory of minimizers to such problems. We focus our attention on three different equations, emphasizing that the techniques and ideas in the three settings are quite similar. The first topic is the stability of minimal cones. We prove the minimality of the Simons cone in high dimension…
In this paper, we prove a boundary pointwise regularity for fully nonlinear elliptic equations on cones. In addition, based on this regularity, we give simple proofs of the Liouville theorems on cones.
We study the problem of the existence and nonexistence of positive solutions to a superlinear second-order divergence type elliptic equation with measurable coefficients $(*)$: $-\nabla\cdot a\cdot\nabla u=u^p$ in an unbounded cone--like domain $G\subset\bf R^N$ $(N\ge 3)$. We prove that the critical exponent $p^*(a,G)=\inf\{p>1 : (*) \hbox{has a positive supersolution in} G\}$ for a nontrivial cone-like domain is always in $(1,N/(N-2))$ and in contrast with exterior domains depends both on the geometry of the domain $G$ and the coefficients $a$ of the equation.
We study the oblique derivative problem for uniformly elliptic equations on cone domains. Under the assumption of axi-symmetry of the solution, we find sufficient conditions on the angle of the oblique vector for Hölder regularity of the gradient to hold up to the vertex of the cone. The proof of regularity is based on the application of carefully constructed barrier methods or via perturbative arguments. In the case that such regularity does not hold, we give explicit counterexamples. We also give a counterexample to regularity in the absence of axi-symmetry. Unlike in the equivalent two dime…
In considering a class of quasilinear elliptic equations on a Riemannian manifold with nonnegative Ricci curvature, we give a new proof of Tolksdorf's result on the construction of separable $p$-harmonic functions in a cone.
We study the existence and nonexistence of positive (super-)solutions to a singular semilinear elliptic equation $$-\nabla\cdot(|x|^A\nabla u)-B|x|^{A-2}u=C|x|^{A-σ}u^p$$ in cone--like domains of $\R^N$ ($N\ge 2$), for the full range of parameters $A,B,σ,p\in\R$ and $C>0$. We provide a complete characterization of the set of $(p,σ)\in\R^2$ such that the equation has no positive (super-)solutions, depending on the values of $A,B$ and the principle Dirichlet eigenvalue of the cross--section of the cone. The proofs are based on the explicit construction of appropriate barriers and involve the ana…
We consider an elliptic equation in a cone, endowed with (possibly inhomogeneous) Neumann conditions. The operator and the forcing terms can also allow non-Lipschitz singularities at the vertex of the cone. In this setting, we provide unique continuation results, both in terms of interior and boundary points. The proof relies on a suitable Almgren-type frequency formula with remainders. As a byproduct, we obtain classification results for blow-up limits.
The purpose of this paper is to provide a detailed description of the spaces that can be specified as $L^2$ domains for the operators of a first order elliptic complex on a compact manifold with conical singularities. This entails an analysis of the nature of the minimal domain and of a complementary space in the maximal domain of each of the operators. The key technical result is the nondegeneracy of a certain pairing of cohomology classes associated with the indicial complex. It is further proved that the set of choices of domains leading to Hilbert complexes in the sense of Brüning and Lesc…
We study asymptotic behaviors of solutions to the Loewner-Nirenberg problem in finite cones and establish optimal asymptotic expansions in terms of the corresponding solutions in infinite cones. The spherical domains over which cones are formed are allowed to have singularities. An elliptic operator on such spherical domains with coefficients singular on boundary play an important role. Due to the singularity of the spherical domains, extra cares are needed for the study of the global regularity of the eigenfunctions and solutions of the associated singular Dirichlet problem.
We prove extensions of the estimates of Aleksandrov and Bakel$'$man for linear elliptic operators in Euclidean space $\Bbb{R}^{\it n}$ to inhomogeneous terms in $L^q$ spaces for $q < n$. Our estimates depend on restrictions on the ellipticity of the operators determined by certain subcones of the positive cone. We also consider some applications to local pointwise and $L^2$ estimates.
We study the generalized boundary value problem for nonnegative solutions of of $-Δu+g(u)=0$ in a bounded Lipschitz domain $Ω$, when $g$ is continuous and nondecreasing. Using the harmonic measure of $Ω$, we define a trace in the class of outer regular Borel measures. We amphasize the case where $g(u)=|u|^{q-1}u$, $q>1$. When $Ω$ is (locally) a cone with vertex $y$, we prove sharp results of removability and characterization of singular behavior. In the general case, assuming that $Ω$ possesses a tangent cone at every boundary point and $q$ is subcritical, we prove an existence and uniqueness …
We prove the uniqueness of positive radial solutions for a class of quasi-linear elliptic problems containing, in particular, the quasi-linear Schrodinger equation.
Given a bounded domain in the Euclidean space satisfying the uniform outer cone condition, we show that a uniformly elliptic operator of second order with continuous second order coefficients generates a holomorphic semigroup on the space of all continuous functions vanishing at the boundary. In particular, Lipschitz domains are allowed. This result was so far known under considerable stronger regularity assumptions. Also the Dirichlet problem is considered for such operators.
For a class of quasilinear elliptic equations involving the p-Laplace operator, we develop an abstract critical point theory in the presence of sub-supersolutions. Our approach is based upon the proof of the invariance under the gradient flow of enlarged cones in the $W^{1,p}_0$ topology. With this, we prove abstract existence and multiplicity theorems in the presence of variously ordered pairs of sub-supersolutions. As an application, we provide a four solutions theorem, one of the solutions being sign-changing.
We study the generalized boundary value problem for nonnegative solutions of $-Δu+g(u)=0$ in a bounded Lipschitz domain $\Gw$, when $g$ is continuous and nondecreasing. Using the harmonic measure of $\Gw$, we define a trace in the class of outer regular Borel measures. We amphasize the case where $g(u)=|u|^{q-1}u$, $q>1$. When $\Gw$ is (locally) a cone with vertex $y$, we prove sharp results of removability and characterization of singular behavior. In the general case, assuming that $\Gw$ possesses a tangent cone at every boundary point and $q$ is subcritical, we prove an existence and unique…
We prove that parameter-elliptic extensions of cone differential operators have a bounded $H_\infty$-calculus. Applications concern the Laplacian and the porous medium equation on manifolds with warped conical singularities.
We investigate the existence of ground states for functionals with nonhomogenous principal part. Roughly speaking, we show that the Nehari manifold method requires no homogeinity on the principal part of a functional. This result is motivated by some elliptic problems involving nonhomogeneous operators. As an application, we prove the existence of a ground state and infinitely many solutions for three classes of boundary value problems.
We consider a semilinear elliptic problem in an annulus of R^N, with N>1. Recent results ensure that there exists a sequence p_k of exponents of the nonlinear term at which a nonradial bifurcation from the radial solution occurs. Exploiting the properties of O(N-1)-invariant spherical harmonics, we introduce two suitable cones K^1 and $K^2$ of O(N-1)-invariant functions that allow to separate the branches of bifurcating solutions from the others, getting the unboundedness of these branches.
We obtain left and right continuous embeddings for the domains of the complex powers of sectorial $\mathbb{B}$-elliptic cone differential operators. We apply this result to the heat equation on manifolds with conical singularities and provide asymptotic expansions of the unique solution close to the conical points. We further show that the decomposition of the solution in terms of asymptotics spaces, i.e. finite dimensional spaces that describe the domains of the integer powers of the Laplacian and determined by the local geometry around the singularity, is preserved under the evolution.
In this work, we study the of positive ground state solution for the semilinear elliptic problem $$ \left\{ \begin{array} [c]{ll}% -Δu=u^{p(x)-1},\quad u>0 & \mathrm{in}\,G\subseteq\mathbb{R}^{N}% ,\,N\geq3\\ u\in D_{0}^{1,2}(G), & \end{array} \right. $$ where $G$ is either $\mathbb{R}^{N}$ or a bounded domain, and $p:G\rightarrow \mathbb{R}$ is a continuous function assuming critical and subcritical values.
We prove that the index formula for $b$-elliptic cone differential operators given by M. Lesch holds verbatim for operators whose coefficients are not necessarily independent of the normal variable near the boundary. We also show that, for index purposes, the operators can always be considered on weighted Sobolev spaces.
We study the existence of bound and ground states for a class of nonlinear elliptic systems in $\mathbb{R}^N$. These equations involve critical power nonlinearities and Hardy-type singular potentials, coupled by a term containing up to critical powers. More precisely, we find ground states either the positive coupling parameter $ν$ is large or $ν$ is small under suitable assumptions on the other parameters of the problem. Furthermore, bound states are found as Mountain-Pass-type critical points of the underlying functional constrained on the Nehari manifold. Our variational approach improves s…
It is established existence of bound and ground state solutions for quasilinear elliptic systems driven by (ϕ1, ϕ2)-Laplacian operator. The main feature here is to consider quasilinear elliptic systems involving both nonsingular nonlinearities combined with indefinite potentials and singular cases perturbed by superlinear and subcritical couple terms. These prevent us to use arguments based on Ambrosetti-Rabinowitz condition and variational methods for differentiable functionals. By exploring the Nehari method and doing a fine analysis on the fibering map associated, we get estimates that allo…
We study closed extensions A of an elliptic differential operator on a manifold with conical singularities, acting as an unbounded operator on a weighted L_p-space. Under suitable conditions we show that the resolvent (λ-A)^{-1} exists in a sector of the complex plane and decays like 1/|λ| as |λ| tends to infinity. Moreover, we determine the structure of the resolvent with enough precision to guarantee existence and boundedness of imaginary powers of A. As an application we treat the Laplace-Beltrami operator for a metric with straight conical degeneracy and describe domains yielding maximal r…
In this paper, we are concerned with the existence and asymptotic behavior of minimizers for a minimization problem related to some quasilinear elliptic equations. Firstly, we proved that there exist minimizers when the exponent $q$ equals to the critical case $q^*=2+\frac{4}{N}$, which is different from that of \cite{cjs}. Then, we proved that all minimizers are compact as $q$ tends to the critical case $q^*$ when $a<a^*$ is fixed. Moreover, we studied the concentration behavior of minimizers as the exponent $q$ tends to the critical case $q^*$ for any fixed $a>a^*$.
We investigate which elliptic PDEs that have the property that every viscosity supersolution is $W^{1,q}_{loc}(Ω)$, $Ω\subseteq\mathbb{R}^n$. The asymptotic cone of the operator's sublevel set seems to be essential. It turns out that much can be said if we know how this cone compares to the sublevel set of a certain minimal operator associated with the exponent $q$.
We are concerned on the fourth-order elliptic equation \begin{equation}\tag{$P_λ$} \left\{ \begin{array}[c]{ll} Δ^2 u- Δu + V(x)u -λΔ[ρ(u^2)]ρ'(u^2)u= f(u)\, \, \mbox{in} \, \, \mathbb{R}^N, & u\in W^{2,2}(\mathbb{R}^N), \end{array} \right. \end{equation} where $Δ^2 = Δ(Δ)$ is the biharmonic operator, $3\leq N\leq 6$, the radially symmetric potential $V$ may change sign and $\inf_{\mathbb{R}^N}V(x)=-\infty$ is allowed. If $f$ satisfies a type of nonquadracity and monotonicity conditions and $ρ$ is a suitable smooth function, we prove, via variational approach, the existence of a radially symme…
We give a proof by foliation that the cones over $\mathbb{S}^k \times \mathbb{S}^l$ minimize parametric elliptic functionals for each $k,\,l \geq 1$. We also analyze the behavior at infinity of the leaves in the foliations. This analysis motivates conjectures related to the existence and growth rates of nonlinear entire solutions to equations of minimal surface type that arise in the study of such functionals.
We prove the exact multiplicity of flat and compact support stable solutions of an autonomous non-Lipschitz semilinear elliptic equation of eigenvalue type according to the dimension N and the two exponents, $0<α<β<1$, of the involved nonlinearites. Suitable assumptions are made on the spatial domain $Ω$ where the problem is formulated in order to avoid a possible continuum of those solutions and, on the contrary, to ensure the exact number of solutions according to the nature of the domain $Ω$. Our results also clarify some previous works in the literature. The main techniques of proof are a …
This investigation is devoted to the program to characterise continuous and variable discrete asymptotics of solutions to elliptic equations on a manifold with edge, continued in a cicle of forthcoming expositions [15], [16]. The structure of continuous and variable discrete (in general branch- ing) asymptotics is very complex. Therefore, in order to make things more transparent we present here the approach first in the special constant di- screte case, based on meromorphic Mellin symbols.
In this paper, we study the motion of level sets by general curvature. The difficulty of this setting is that a general curvature function is only well defined in an admissible cone. In order to extend the existence of a weak solution of a general curvature flow to outside the cone we introduce a new approximation function $\hat{f}^n$ (see (3.1)). Moreover, using the idea in [4], we give an elliptic approach for the Ben-Andrews' non-collapsing result in fully nonlinear curvature flows; we hope this approach can be generalized to a wider class of elliptic equations.
In this paper, we study the existence of a ground state solution, that is, a non trivial solution with least energy, of a noncooperative semilinear elliptic system on a bounded domain. By using the method of the generalized Nehari manifold developed recently by Szulkin and Weth, we prove the existence of a ground state solution when the nonlinearity is subcritical and satisfies a weak superquadratic condition.
The core result of this paper is an upper bound for the ground state energyof the magnetic Laplacian with constant magnetic field on cones that are contained in ahalf-space. This bound involves a weighted norm of the magnetic field related to momentson a plane section of the cone. When the cone is sharp, i.e. when its section is small, thisupper bound tends to 0. A lower bound on the essential spectrum is proved for familiesof sharp cones, implying that if the section is small enough the ground state energy is aneigenvalue. This circumstance produces corner concentration in the semi-classical …
This paper is a continuation of the investigation of resolvents of elliptic operators on conic manifolds from math.AP/0410178 and math.AP/0410176 to the case of manifolds with boundary and realizations of operators under boundary conditions. We prove the existence of sectors of minimal growth for realizations of boundary value problems for cone operators under natural ellipticity conditions on the symbols. Special attention is devoted to the clarification of the analytic structure of the resolvent.
We investigate the heat equation corresponding to the Bessel operators on a symmetric cone $Ω=G/K$. These operators form a one-parameter family of elliptic self-adjoint second order differential operators and occur in the Lie algebra action of certain unitary highest weight representations. The heat kernel is explicitly given in terms of a multivariable $I$-Bessel function on $Ω$. Its corresponding heat kernel transform defines a continuous linear operator between $L^p$-spaces. The unitary image of the $L^2$-space under the heat kernel transform is characterized as a weighted Bergmann space on…
We study ground state solutions for linear and nonlinear elliptic PDEs in $\mathbb{R}^n$ with (pseudo-)differential operators of arbitrary order. We prove a general symmetry result in the nonlinear case as well as a uniqueness result for ground states in the linear case. In particular, we can deal with problems (e.\,g. higher order PDEs) that cannot be tackled by usual methods such as maximum principles, moving planes, or Polya--Szegö inequalities. Instead, we use arguments based on the Fourier transform and we apply a rigidity result for the Hardy-Littlewood majorant problem in $\mathbb{R}^n$…
