In this paper we study the energy function associated to fourth order equations of critical growth on smooth compact conformally flat manifolds of dimension greater or equal than 5.
We study qualitative properties for nonnegative solutions to a conformally invariant coupled system of fourth order equations involving critical exponents. For solutions defined in the punctured space, there exist essentially two cases to analyze. If the origin is a removable singularity, we prove that non-singular solutions are rotationally invariant and weakly positive. More precisely, they are the product of a fourth order spherical solution by a unit vector with nonnegative coordinates. If the origin is a non-removable singularity, we show that the solutions are radially symmetric and stro…
We study the asymptotic behavior for singular solutions to a critical fourth order system generalizing the constant $Q$-curvature equation. Our main result extends to the case of strongly coupled systems, the celebrated asymptotic classification due to [L. A. Caffarelli, B. Gidas and J. Spruck, Comm. Pure Appl. Math. (1989)] and [N. Korevaar, R. Mazzeo, F. Pacard and R. Schoen, Invent. Math., (1999)]. On the technical level, we use an involved spectral analysis to study the Jacobi fields' growth properties in the kernel of the linearization of our system around a blow-up limit solution. Beside…
New embeddings of weighted Sobolev spaces are established. Using such embeddings, we obtain the existence and regularity of positive solutions with Navier boundary value problems for a weighted fourth order elliptic equation. We also obtain Liouville type results for the related equation. Some problems are still open.
In this paper we use an algebraic topological argument due to Bahri and Coron to show how the topology of the domain influences the existence of positive solutions of some fourth order elliptic equation involving the critical Sobolev exponent.
A nonlinear fourth-order parabolic equation in one space dimension with periodic boundary conditions is studied. This equation arises in the context of fluctuations of a stationary nonequilibrium interface and in the modeling of quantum semiconductor devices. The existence of global-in-time non-negative weak solutions is shown. A criterion for the uniqueness of non-negative weak solutions is given. Finally, it is proved that the solution converges exponentially fast to its mean value in the ``entropy norm'' using a new optimal logarithmic Sobolev inequality for higher derivatives.
We continue the study on the transport properties of the Gaussian measures on Sobolev spaces under the dynamics of the cubic fourth order nonlinear Schrödinger equation. By considering the renormalized equation, we extend the quasi-invariance results in [30, 27] to Sobolev spaces of negative regularity. Our proof combines the approach introduced by Planchon, Tzvetkov, and Visciglia [35] with the normal form approach in [30, 27].
Following an approach of the second author for conformally invariant variational problems in two dimensions, we show in four dimensions the existence of a conservation law for fourth order systems, which includes both intrinsic and extrinsic biharmonic maps. With the help of this conservation law we prove the continuity of weak solutions of this system. Moreover we use the conservation law to derive the existence of a unique global weak solution of the extrinsic biharmonic map flow in the energy space.
Using the method of Nehari manifold, we prove the existence of at least two distinct weak solutions to elliptic equation of four order with singulatities and with critical Sobolev growth.
We describe a set of conformally covariant boundary operators associated to the Paneitz operator, in the sense that they give rise to a conformally covariant energy functional for the Paneitz operator on a compact Riemannian manifold with boundary. These operators naturally give rise to a first- and third-order conformally covariant pseudodifferential operator. In the setting of Poincaré--Einstein manifolds, we show that these operators agree with the fractional GJMS operators of Graham and Zworski. We also use our operators to establish some new sharp Sobolev trace inequalities.
The classical Sobolev and Escobar inequalities are embedded into the same one-parameter family of sharp trace-Sobolev inequalities on half-spaces. Equality cases are characterized for each inequality in this family by tweaking a well-known mass transportation argument and lead to a new comparison theorem for trace Sobolev inequalities. The case $p=2$ corresponds to a family of variational problems on conformally flat metrics which was previously settled by Carlen and Loss with their method of competing symmetries. In this case minimizers interpolate between conformally flat spherical and hyper…
We investigate fourth order Paneitz equations of critical growth in the case of $n$-dimensional closed conformally flat manifolds, $n \ge 5$. Such equations arise from conformal geometry and are modelized on the Einstein case of the geometric equation describing the effects of conformal changes of metrics on the $Q$-curvature. We obtain sharp asymptotics for arbitrary bounded energy sequences of solutions of our equations from which we derive stability and compactness properties. In doing so we establish the criticality of the geometric equation with respect to the trace of its second order te…
In this paper we study some fourth order elliptic equation involving the critical Sobolev exponent, related to the prescription of a fourth order conformal invariant on the standard sphere. We use a topological method to prove the existence of at least a solution when the function to be prescribed is close to a constant and a finite dimensional map associated to it has non-zero degree.
We show explicit forms for extremals of some fourth-order sharp trace inequalities on the unit balls recently proved by Ache-Chang. We also give a classification result of the bi-harmonic equation on $\mathbb{R}^4_+$ with some conformally covariant boundary conditions.
We describe a set of conformally covariant boundary operators associated to the sixth-order GJMS operator on a conformally invariant class of manifolds which includes compactifications of Poincaré--Einstein manifolds. This yields a conformally covariant energy functional for the sixth-order GJMS operator on such manifolds. Our boundary operators also provide a new realization of the fractional GJMS operators of order one, three, and five as generalized Dirichlet-to-Neumann operators. This allows us to prove some sharp Sobolev trace inequalities involving the interior $W^{3,2}$-seminorm, includ…
In this paper we extend Hardy-Littlewood-Sobolev inequalities on compact Riemannian manifolds for dimension $n\ne 2$. As one application, we solve a generalized Yamabe problem on locally conforamlly flat manifolds via a new designed energy functional and a new variational approach. Even for the classic Yamabe problem on locally conformally flat manifolds, our approach provides a new and relatively simpler solution.
We consider the Cauchy problem for the cubic fourth order nonlinear Schrödinger equation (4NLS) on the circle. In particular, we prove global well-posedness of the renormalized 4NLS in negative Sobolev spaces $H^s(\mathbb{T})$, $s > -\frac{1}{3}$, with enhanced uniqueness. The proof consists of two separate arguments. (i) We first prove global existence in $H^s(\mathbb{T})$, $s > -\frac{9}{20}$, via the short-time Fourier restriction norm method. By following the argument in Guo-Oh for the cubic NLS, this also leads to non-existence of solutions for the (non-renormalized) 4NLS in negative Sobo…
We consider the Cauchy problem for the fourth order cubic nonlinear Schrödinger equation (4NLS). The main goal of this paper is to prove low regularity well-posedness and mild ill-posedness for (4NLS). We prove three results. First, we show that (4NLS) is locally well-posed in $H^s\left(\mathbb{R}\right), s\geq -\frac{1}{2}$ using the Fourier restriction norm method. Second, we show that (4NLS) is globally well-posed in $H^s\left(\mathbb{R}\right),s\geq -\frac{1}{2}$. To prove this, we use the $I$-method with the correction term strategy presented in Colliander-Keel-Staffilani-Takaoka-Tao [7].…
We establish three families of Sobolev trace inequalities of orders two and four in the unit ball under higher order moments constraint, and are able to construct \emph{smooth} test functions to show all such inequalities are \emph{almost optimal}. Some distinct feature in \emph{almost sharpness} examples between the fourth order and second order Sobolev trace inequalities is discovered. This has been neglected in higher order Sobolev inequality case in \cite{Hang}. As a byproduct, the method of our construction can be used to show the sharpness of the generalized Lebedev-Milin inequality unde…
We show precompactness results for solutions to parabolic fourth order geometric evolution equations. As part of the proof we obtain smoothing estimates for these flows in the presence of a curvature bound, an improvement on prior results which also require a Sobolev constant bound. As consequences of these results we show that for any solution with a finite time singularity, the $L^{\infty}$ norm of the curvature must go to infinity. Furthermore, we characterize the behavior at infinity of solutions with bounded curvature.
We obtain generalizations of the uniform Sobolev inequalities of Kenig, Ruiz and the fourth author \cite{KRS} for Euclidean spaces and Dos Santos Ferreira, Kenig and Salo \cite{DKS} for compact Riemannian manifolds involving critically singular potentials $V\in L^{n/2}$. We also obtain the analogous improved quasimode estimates of the the first, third and fourth authors \cite{BSS} , Hassell and Tacy \cite{HassellTacy}, the first and fourth author \cite{SBLog}, and Hickman \cite{Hickman} as well as analogues of the improved uniform Sobolev estimates of \cite{BSSY} and \cite{Hickman} involving s…
Using a variational method we prove the existence of nodal solutions to prescribed scalar Q- curvature type equations on compact Riemannian manifolds with boundary; these equations are fourth-order elliptic equations with critical Sobolev growth .
We show that on $\mathbb S^1(1/\sqrt{d-2})\times\mathbb S^{d-1}(1)$ the conformally invariant Sobolev inequality holds with a remainder term that is the fourth power of the distance to the optimizers. The fourth power is best possible. This is in contrast to the more usual vanishing to second order and is motivated by work of Engelstein, Neumayer and Spolaor. A similar phenomenon arises for subcritical Sobolev inequalities on $\mathbb S^d$. Our proof proceeds by an iterated Bianchi-Egnell strategy.
In this paper we perform a fine blow-up analysis for a fourth order elliptic equation involving critical Sobolev exponent, related to the prescription of some conformal invariant on the standard sphere. We derive from this analysis some a priori estimates in dimension 5 and 6. On the five dimensionl sphere these a priori estimates combined with the perturbation result of Part I allow us to obtain some existence results. On the six dimensional sphere we prove the existence of at least one solution when an associated index is different from zero.
This paper deals with a fourth order elliptic equation on compact Riemannian manifolds.We establish the existence of solutions to the equation with critical Sobolev growth which is the subject of the first theorem. In the second one, we prove the multiplicity of solutions in the subcritical case.
We classify all finite energy solutions of an equation which arises as the Euler--Lagrange equation of a conformally invariant logarithmic Sobolev inequality on the sphere due to Beckner. Our proof uses an extension of the method of moving spheres from $\mathbb R^n$ to $\mathbb S^n$ and a classification result of Li and Zhu. Along the way we prove a small volume maximum principle and a strong maximum principle for the underlying operator which is closely related to the logarithmic Laplacian.
For compact, isometrically embedded Riemannian manifolds $ N \hookrightarrow \mathbb{R}^L$, we introduce a fourth-order version of the wave map equation. By energy estimates, we prove an $\textit{a priori}$ estimate for smooth local solutions in the energy subcritical dimension $ n = 1,2$. The estimate excludes blow-up of a Sobolev norm in finite existence times. In particular, combining this with recent work of local well-posedness of the Cauchy problem, it follows that for smooth initial data with compact support, there exists a (smooth) unique global solution in dimension $n = 1,2$. We also…
We prove that the solution map, associated to the quintic fourth order nonlinear Schrödinger equation, exhibits the norm inflation phenomenon at every point in the Sobolev spaces of super-critical regularity. Indeed, we prove this result separately in the cases of negative and of positive regularity. In the negative regularity case, we prove the result for both the defocusing and focusing equations: in the one dimensional case, the associated solution map exhibits norm inflation in Sobolev spaces of super-critical regularity (including the critical index); in the higher dimensional case, the s…
We examine the following fourth order Hénon equation \label{pipe} Δ^2 u = |x|^αu^p \qquad \text{in}\ \IR^N, where $ 0 < α$. Define the Hardy-Sobolev exponent $ p_4(α):= \frac{N+4 + 2 α}{N-4}$. We show that in dimension N=5 there are no positive bounded classical solutions of (\ref{pipe}) provided $ 1 < p < p_4(α)$.
We study the transport properties of the Gaussian measures on Sobolev spaces under the dynamics of the cubic fourth order nonlinear Schrödinger equation on the circle. In particular, we establish an optimal regularity result for quasi-invariance of the mean-zero Gaussian measures on Sobolev spaces. The main new ingredient is an improved energy estimate established by performing an infinite iteration of normal form reductions on the energy functional. Furthermore, we show that the dispersion is essential for such a quasi-invariance result by proving non quasi-invariance of the Gaussian measures…
In this paper we derive a refined asymptotic expansion, near an isolated singularity, for conformally flat metrics with constant positive Q-curvature and positive scalar curvature. The condition that the metric has constant Q-curvature forces the conformal factor to satisfy a fourth order nonlinear partial differential equation with critical Sobolev growth, whose leading term is the bilaplacian. We model our results on a similar asymptotic expansion for conformally flat, constant scalar curvature metrics proven by Korevaar, Mazzeo, Pacard, and Schoen. Along the way we analyze the linearization…
We consider the cubic fourth order nonlinear Schrödinger equation on the circle. In particular, we prove that the mean-zero Gaussian measures on Sobolev spaces $H^s(\mathbb{T})$, $s > \frac34$, are quasi-invariant under the flow.
We prove the local well-posedness for the nonlinear fourth-order Schrödinger equation (NL4S) in Sobolev spaces. We also studied the regularity of solutions in the sub-critical case. A direct consequence of this regularity is the global well-posedness above mass and energy spaces under some assumptions. Finally, we show the ill-posedness for (NL4S) in some cases of the super-critical range.
Our first objective in this paper is to give a natural formulation of the Christoffel problem for hypersurfaces in $H^{n+1}$, by means of the hyperbolic Gauss map and the notion of hyperbolic curvature radii for hypersurfaces. Our second objective is to provide an explicit equivalence of this Christoffel problem with the famous problem of prescribing scalar curvature on $§^n$ for conformal metrics, posed by Nirenberg and Kazdan-Warner. This construction lets us translate into the hyperbolic setting the known results for the scalar curvature problem, and also provides a hypersurface theory inte…
We consider two cases of the asymptotically flat scalar-flat Yamabe problem on a non-compact manifold with boundary, in dimension $n\geq3$. First, following arguments of Cantor and Brill in the compact case, we show that given an asymptotically flat metric $g$, there is a conformally equivalent asymptotically flat scalar-flat metric that agrees with $g$ on the boundary. We then replace the metric boundary condition with a condition on the mean curvature: Given a function $f$ on the boundary that is not too large, we show that there is an asymptotically flat scalar-flat metric, conformally equi…
We deal with nonlinear weighted biharmonic problem in the unit ball of $\mathbb{R}^{4}$. The weight is of logarithm type. The nonlinearity is critical in view of Adam's inequalities in the weighted Sobolev space $W^{2,2}_{0}(B,w)$. We prove the existence of non trivial solutions via the critical point theory. The main difficulty is the loss of compactness due to the critical exponential growth of the nonlinear term $f$. We give a new growth condition and we point out its importance for checking the Palais-Smale compactness condition.
We obtain heat kernel estimates for a class of fourth order non-uniformly elliptic operators in two dimensions. Contrary to existing results, the operators considered have symbols that are not strongly convex. This rises certain difficulties as it is known that, as opposed to the strongly convex case, there is no absolute exponential constant. Our estimates involve sharp constants and Finsler-type distances that are induced by the operator symbol. The main result is based on two general hypotheses, a weighted Sobolev inequalitry and an interpolation inequality, which are related to the singula…
A degenerate fourth-order parabolic equation modeling condensation phenomena related to Bose-Einstein particles is analyzed. The model is a Fokker-Planck-type approximation of the Boltzmann-Nordheim equation, only keeping the leading order term. It maintains some of the main features of the kinetic model, namely mass and energy conservation and condensation at zero energy. The existence of a local-in-time nonnegative continuous weak solution is proven. If the solution is not global, it blows up with respect to the $L^\infty$ norm in finite time. The proof is based on approximation arguments, i…
We investigate the problem of entire solutions for a class of fourth order, dilation invariant, semilinear elliptic equations with power-type weights and with subcritical or critical growth in the nonlinear term. These equations define non compact variational problems and are characterized by the presence of a term containing lower order derivatives, whose strength is ruled by a parameter λ. We can prove existence of entire solutions found as extremal functions for some Rellich-Sobolev type inequalities. Moreover, when the nonlinearity is suitably close to the critical one and the parameter λ …
A new method to compute Schauder Estimates for multidimensional fourth order heat-type equations is proposed. In particular, we show how knowing Schauder or Sobolev estimates for the one-dimensional fourth order heat equation allows to derive their multidimensional analogs for equations with time inhomogeneous coefficients with the same constants as in the case of the one-dimensional heat equation. Our method relies on a merger between (Krylov and Priola, 2017), where they actually showed the same result for the classical second order heat equation and (Funaki, 1979), where a probabilistic con…