A comparison principle for the Lane-Emden equation and applications to geometric estimates (Q2132490)

The paper deals with the nonlinear elliptic PDE (Lane-Emden equation) \[ -\Delta_p u=\alpha|u|^{q-2}u\text{ in }\Omega \] with boundary condition \(u=u_0\) on \(\partial\Omega\). The corresponding energy integral functional is \[ F_{q,\alpha}(u)=\int_\Omega\frac{1}{p}|\nabla u|^p-\alpha|u|^q\,dx, \] and in the paper the sub-homogeneous case \(1<q<p\) is considered. No regularity on the domain \(\Omega\) is assumed, and unbounded sets \(\Omega\) are also allowed. An important step in the paper is the \textit{hidden convexity principle}, consisting in the fact that the integral \(\int_\Omega|\nabla\psi|^p\,dx\) is convex along curves of the form \[ \big((1-t)\psi_0^q+t\psi_1^q\big)^{1/q}\text{ with }\psi_0,\psi_1\ge0. \] The main results in the paper deal with the following issues: -- uniqueness of minimizers for the energy functional \(F_{q,\alpha}\) when the boundary datum \(u_0\) is nonnegative; -- bounds for sign-changing solutions of the PDE above, in the case of homogeneous boundary conditions; -- sharp pointwise estimates for solutions, in terms of geometric quantities, when the domain \(\Omega\) is convex; -- sharp \(L^\infty\) estimates for solutions, when the domain \(\Omega\) is convex; -- sharp geometric estimates on the corresponding \textit{generalized principal frequencies}.