A sharp sup+inf inequality for a nonlinear elliptic equation in \(\mathbb{R}^2\) (Q1128150)

The paper is concerned with the equation \(\Delta u+K(x)e^u=0\) in \(\mathbb{R}^2\), where \(K(x)\) is bounded by two positive constants \(a\) and \(b\). For a solution \(u(x)\), the total curvature \(\alpha\) is defined as the integral of \(K(x)e^{u(x)}\) over \(\mathbb{R}^2\). The first result is the following. If \(u(x)\) is a solution of the equation then \(\alpha\geq 4\pi (1+\sqrt{a/b})\); if equality holds then \(K(x)=b\) if \(| x| \leq r_0\), \(K(x)=a\) if \(| x| >r_0\), and the solution is necessarily radially symmetric. Furthermore it is proved that if \(u(x)\) is a solution in a bounded domain \(\Omega\subset \mathbb{R}^2\), then for any compact subset \(A\) of \(\Omega\) there exists a constant \(C=C(a,b A,\Omega)\) such that the inequality \[ \sqrt{a/b}\sup_A u+\inf_\Omega u\leq C \] holds. If \(K(x)\) is also Hölder continuous with constant \(B\) and exponent \(\beta\) then \[ \sup_A u+\inf_\Omega u\leq C, \] where \(C=C(a,b,A,\Omega,B,\beta)\).