Positivity for polyharmonic problems on domains close to a disk (Q996940)

The author studies the sign of the solution of the problem \[ \begin{cases} (- \Delta u)^m=f &\quad \text{in}\quad\Omega,\\ \dfrac{\partial^j}{\partial^j \nu^j}u =0 &\quad \text{on}\quad \partial \Omega, \end{cases} \] where \(m \geq 2\), \(0 \leq j \leq m-1\), \(\Omega\) is a sufficiently smooth two dimensional domain, \(\nu\) exterior normal and \(f \geq 0\). The domain \(\Omega\) is \(\lq\lq \epsilon\)--close\'\'\ to a disk \(B\) in \(C^{m,\nu}\)--sense, i.e., there exists a \(C^{m,\nu}\)--map \(g :\overline{B} \to\overline\Omega\) such that \(g (\overline{B}) =(\overline\Omega)\) and \(\|g-I d \|_{C^{m,\nu} (\overline{B})}\leq\epsilon\). In this work it is shown that \(\epsilon\)--closeness in \(C^{m,\nu}\)--sense is enough in order to ensure the strictly positivity of the solution \(u\). This note improves the results of a paper by \textit{H.-C. Grunau} and \textit{G. Sweers} [Math. Nachr. 179, 89--102 (1996; Zbl 0863.35016)] where closeness to a disk in \(C^{2\,m}\)-sense was requested.