The Yamabe problem concerns finding a conformal metric on a given closed Riemannian manifold so that it has constant scalar curvature. This paper concerns mainly a fully nonlinear version of the Yamabe problem and the corresponding Liouville type problem.
We establish blow-up profiles for any blowing-up sequence of solutions of general conformally invariant fully nonlinear elliptic equations on Euclidean domains. We prove that (i) the distance between blow-up points is bounded from below by a universal positive number, (ii) the solutions are very close to a single standard bubble in a universal positive distance around each blow-up point, and (iii) the heights of these bubbles are comparable by a universal factor. As an application of this result, we establish a quantitative Liouville theorem.
Motivated by the supersymmetric extension of Liouville theory in the recent physics literature, we couple the standard Liouville functional with a spinor field term. The resulting functional is conformally invariant. We study geometric and analytic aspects of the resulting Euler-Lagrange equations, culminating in a blow up analysis.
In this paper we establish existence and compactness of solutions to a general fully nonlinear version of the Yamabe problem on locally conformally flat Riemannian manifolds with umbilic boundary.
We give a generalization of a theorem of Bôcher for the Laplace equation to a class of conformally invariant fully nonlinear degenerate elliptic equations. We also prove a Harnack inequality for locally Lipschitz viscosity solutions and a classification of continuous radially symmetric viscosity solutions.
We will report some results concerning the Yamabe problem and the Nirenberg problem. Related topics will also be discussed. Such studies have led to new results on some conformally invariant fully nonlinear equations arising from geometry. We will also present these results which include some Liouville type theorems, Harnack type inequalities, existence and compactness of solutions to some nonlinear version of the Yamabe problem.
We study entire continuous viscosity solutions to fully nonlinear elliptic equations involving the conformal Hessian. We prove the strong comparison principle and Hopf Lemma for (non-uniformly) elliptic equations when one of the competitors is $C^{1,1}$. We obtain as a consequence a Liouville theorem for entire solutions which are approximable by $C^{1,1}$ solutions on larger and larger compact domains, and, in particular, for entire $C^{1,1}_{\rm loc}$ solutions: they are either constants or standard bubbles.
In this paper we show rigidity results for super-solutions to fully nonlinear elliptic conformally invariant equations on subdomains of the standard $n$-sphere $\mathbb S^n$ under suitable conditions along the boundary. We emphasize that our results do not assume concavity assumption on the fully nonlinear equations we will work with. This proves rigidity for compact connected locally conformally flat manifolds $(M,g)$ with boundary such that the eigenvalues of the Schouten tensor satisfy a fully nonlinear elliptic inequality and whose boundary is isometric to a geodesic sphere $\partial D(r)$…
We investigate different concentration-compactness phenomena related to the Q-curvature in arbitrary even dimension. We first treat the case of an open domain in $R^{2m}$, then that of a closed manifold and, finally, the particular case of the sphere $S^{2m}$. In all cases we allow the sign of the Q-curvature to vary, and show that in the case of a closed manifold, contrary to the case of open domains in $R^{2m}$, concentration phenomena can occur only at points of positive Q-curvature. As a consequence, on a locally conformally flat manifold of non-positive Euler characteristic we always have…
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.
In \cite{LWZ}, we establish Liouville-type theorems and decay estimates for solutions of a class of high order elliptic equations and systems without the boundedness assumptions on the solutions. In this paper, we continue our work in \cite{LWZ} to investigate the role of boundedness assumption in proving Liouville-type theorems for fully nonlinear equations. We remove the boundedness assumption of solutions which was required in the proof of Liouville-type theorems for fully nonlinear elliptic equations or systems in half spaces. We also prove the Liouville-type theorems for supersolutions of…
We prove a Liouville type classification theorem in half-spaces for infinite boundary value problems related to fully nonlinear, uniformly elliptic operators. We then apply the result in order to obtain gradient boundary blow up rates for ergodic functions in bounded domains related to degenerate/singular operators, and, as a further consequence, we deduce the uniqueness of the ergodic functions.
We give necessary and sufficient conditions for the existence of positive radial solutions for a class of fully nonlinear uniformly elliptic equations posed in the complement of a ball in $\mathbb R^N$, and equipped with homogeneous Dirichlet boundary conditions.
We prove some Liouville properties for sub- and supersolutions of fully nonlinear degenerate elliptic equations in the whole space. Our assumptions allow the coefficients of the first order terms to be large at infinity, provided they have an appropriate sign, as in Ornstein- Uhlenbeck operators. We give two applications. The first is a stabilization property for large times of solutions to fully nonlinear parabolic equations. The second is the solvability of an ergodic Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman equation that identifies a unique critical value of the operator.
We present some results on a fully nonlinear version of the Yamabe problem and a Harnack type inequality for general conformally invariant fully nonlinear second order elliptic equations.
We consider in this note one-side Liouville properties for viscosity solutions of various fully nonlinear uniformly elliptic inequalities, whose prototype is $F(x,D^2u)\geq H_i(x,u,Du)$ in $\mathbb{R}^N$, where $H_i$ has superlinear growth in the gradient variable. After a brief survey on the existing literature, we discuss the validity or the failure of the Liouville property in the model cases $H_1(u,Du)=u^q+|Du|^γ$, $H_2(u,Du)=u^q|Du|^γ$ and $H_3(x,u,Du)=\pm u^q|Du|^γ-b(x)\cdot Du$, where $q\geq0$, $γ>1$ and $b$ is a suitable velocity field. Several counterexamples and open problems are tho…
In this paper, we are concerned with equations \eqref{PDE} involving higher-order fractional Laplacians. By introducing a new approach, we prove the super poly-harmonic properties for nonnegative solutions to \eqref{PDE} (Theorem \ref{Thm0}). Our theorem seems to be the first result on this problem. As a consequence, we derive many important applications of the super poly-harmonic properties. For instance, we establish Liouville theorems, integral representation formula and classification results for nonnegative solutions to fractional higher-order equations \eqref{PDE} with general nonlineari…
We consider the problem of conformally deforming a metric to one with a prescribed symmetric function of the eigenvalues of the Ricci tensor, in the case of negative curvature.
We consider a nonlinear version of the Yamabe problem on locally conformally flat compact manifolds with boundary. The main technique we used is to derive boundary $C^2$ estimates directly from boundary $C^0$ estimates. In particular, the result is a generalization of the work by Escobar.
We prove a Liouville type theorem for arbitrarily growing positive viscosity supersolutions of fully nonlinear uniformly elliptic equations in halfspaces. Precisely, let $M^-_{λ, Λ}$ be the Pucci's inf- operator, defined as the infimum of all linear uniformly elliptic operators with ellipticity constants $Λ\geq λ>0$. Then, we prove that the inequality $M^-_{λ, Λ}(D^2u) +u^p \leq 0$ does not have any positive viscosity solution in a halfspace provided that $-1\leq p \leq (Λ/λn+1)/(Λ/λn-1)$, whereas positive solutions do exist if either $p < -1$ or $p > (Λ/λ(n-1)+2)/(Λ/λ(n-1))$. This will be acc…
This paper studies Liouville properties for viscosity sub- and supersolutions of fully nonlinear degenerate elliptic PDEs, under the main assumption that the operator has a family of generalized subunit vector fields that satisfy the Hörmander condition. A general set of sufficient conditions is given such that all subsolutions bounded above are constant; it includes the existence of a supersolution out of a big ball, that explodes at infinity. Therefore for a large class of operators the problem is reduced to finding such a Lyapunov-like function. This is done here for the vector fields that …
We study fully nonlinear elliptic equations such as \[ F(D^2u) = u^p, \quad p>1, \] in $\R^n$ or in exterior domains, where $F$ is any uniformly elliptic, positively homogeneous operator. We show that there exists a critical exponent, depending on the homogeneity of the fundamental solution of $F$, that sharply characterizes the range of $p>1$ for which there exist positive supersolutions or solutions in any exterior domain. Our result generalizes theorems of Bidaut-Véron \cite{B} as well as Cutri and Leoni \cite{CL}, who found critical exponents for supersolutions in the whole space $\R^n$, i…
Prescribing, by conformal transformation, the kth-elementary symmetric polynomial of the Schouten tensor $P$ to be constant is a generalisation of the Yamabe problem. On compact Riemannian n-manifolds we show that, for k between and including 3 and n, this prescription equation is an Euler-Lagrange equation of some action if and only if the structure is locally conformally flat.
The paper treats second order fully nonlinear degenerate elliptic equations having a family of subunit vector fields satisfying a full-rank bracket condition. It studies Liouville properties for viscosity sub- and supersolutions in the whole space, namely, that under a suitable bound at infinity from above and, respectively, from below, they must be constants. In a previous paper we proved an abstract result and discussed operators on the Heisenberg group. Here we consider various families of vector fields: the generators of a Carnot group, with more precise results for those of step 2, in par…
We prove compactness of solutions of a fully nonlinear Yamabe problem satisfying a lower Ricci curvature bound, when the manifold is not conformally diffeomorphic to the standard sphere. This allows us to prove the existence of solutions when the associated cone $Γ$ satisfies $μ^+_Γ\le 1$, which includes the $σ_k-$Yamabe problem for $k$ not smaller than half of the dimension of the manifold.
We present a conformal deformation involving a fully nonlinear equation in dimension 4, starting with positive scalar curvature. Assuming a certain conformal invariant is positive, one may deform from positive scalar curvature to a stronger condition involving the Ricci tensor. We also give a new conformally invariant condition for positivity of the Paneitz operator, which allows us to give many new examples of manifolds admitting metrics with constant $Q$-curvature.
We classify local minimizers of $\intσ_2+\oint H_2$ among all conformally flat metrics in the Euclidean $(n+1)$-ball, $4\leq n\leq 5$, for which the boundary has unit volume, subject to an ellipticity assumption. We also classify local minimizers of the analogous functional in the critical dimension $n+1=4$. If minimizers exist, this implies a fully nonlinear sharp Sobolev trace inequality. Our proof is an adaptation of the Frank--Lieb proof of the sharp Sobolev inequality, and in particular does not rely on symmetrization or Obata-type arguments.
This article examines the properties of positive solutions to fully nonlinear systems of integral equations involving Hardy and Wolff potentials. The first part of the paper establishes an optimal existence result and a Liouville type theorem for the integral systems. Then, the second part examines the decay rates of positive bound states at infinity. In particular, a complete characterization of the asymptotic properties of bounded and decaying solutions is given by showing that such solutions vanish at infinity with two principle rates: the slow decay rates and the fast decay rates. In fact,…
In this paper, we prove the following two results: First, we study a class of conformally invariant operators $P$ and their related conformally invariant curvatures $Q$ on even-dimensional Riemannian manifolds. When the manifold is locally conformally flat(LCF) and compact without boundary, $Q$-curvature is naturally related to the integrand in the classical Gauss-Bonnet-Chern formula, i.e., the Pfaffian curvature. For a class of even-dimensional complete LCF manifolds with integrable $Q$% -curvature, we establish a Gauss-Bonnet-Chern inequality. Second, a finiteness theorem for certain classe…
In recent years, the study of the interplay between (fully) non-linear potential theory and geometry received important new impulse. The purpose of this work is to move a step further in this direction by investigating appropriate versions of parabolicity and maximum principles at infinity for large classes of non-linear (sub)equations $F$ on manifolds. The main goal is to show a unifying duality between such properties and the existence of suitable $F$-subharmonic exhaustions, called Khas'minskii potentials, which is new even for most of the "standard" operators arising from geometry, and imp…
We prove nonexistence results of Liouville type for nonnegative viscosity solutions of some equations involving the fully nonlinear degenerate elliptic operators ${\cal P}^\pm_k$, defined respectively as the sum of the largest and the smallest $k$ eigenvalues of the Hessian matrix. For the operator ${\cal P}^+_k$ we obtain results analogous to those which hold for the Laplace operator in space dimension $k$. Whereas, owing to the stronger degeneracy of the operator ${\cal P}^-_k$, we get totally different results.
We study a class of second-order boundary-degenerate elliptic equations in two dimensions with minimal regularity assumptions. We prove a maximum principle and a Harnack inequality at the degenerate boundary, and assuming local boundedness, we prove continuity. On globally defined non-negative solutions we provide strong constraints on behavior at infinity, and prove a Liouville-type theorem for entire solutions on the closed half-plane. The class of PDE in question includes many from mathematical finance, Keldysh- and Tricomi-type PDE, and the 2nd order reduction of the fully non-linear 4th o…
One way to generalize the boundary Yamabe problem posed by Escobar is to ask if a given metric on a compact manifold with boundary can be conformally deformed to have vanishing $σ_k$-curvature in the interior and constant $H_k$-curvature on the boundary. When restricting to the closure of the positive $k$-cone, this is a fully nonlinear degenerate elliptic boundary value problem with fully nonlinear Robin-type boundary condition. We prove a general bifurcation theorem which allows us to construct examples of compact Riemannian manifolds $(X,g)$ for which this problem admits multiple non-homoth…
We establish theorems on the existence and compactness of solutions to the $σ_2$-Nirenberg problem on the standard sphere $\mathbb S^2$. A first significant ingredient, a Liouville type theorem for the associated fully nonlinear Möbius invariant elliptic equations, was established in an earlier paper of ours. Our proof of the existence and compactness results requires a number of additional crucial ingredients which we prove in this paper: A Liouville type theorem for the associated fully nonlinear Möbius invariant degenerate elliptic equations, a priori estimates of first and second order der…
Critical $p$-Laplace equations with monotone coefficients: Liouville classification and a Schoen-type Harnack inequality
Academy of Mathematics and Systems Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences(中国科学院数学与系统科学研究院);Institute of Mathematics, Academy of Mathematics and Systems Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences(中国科学院数学与系统科学研究院数学研究所)
We establish interior Lipschitz regularity for continuous viscosity solutions of fully nonlinear, conformally invariant, degenerate elliptic equations. As a by-product of our method, we also prove a weak form of the strong comparison principle, which we refer to as the principle of propagation of touching points, for operators of the form $\nabla^2 ψ+ L(x,ψ,\nabla ψ)$ which are non-decreasing in $ψ$.
Two improved Liouville-type theorems for the 3D stationary tropical climate model without temperature assumptions
School of Mathematics and Statistics, Key Laboratory of Modeling, Simulation and Control of Complex Ecosystem in Dabie Mountains of Anhui Higher Education Institutes, Anqing Normal University(安庆师范大学数学与统计学院,安徽省大别山复杂生态系统模拟与控制重点实验室)
We study existence and asymptotic behavior of radial positive solutions of some fully nonlinear equations involving Pucci's extremal operators in dimension two. In particular we prove the existence of a positive solution of a fully nonlinear version of the Liouville equation in the plane. Moreover for the $\mathcal{M}^-_{λ,Λ}$ operator, we show the existence of a critical exponent and give bounds for it.