On a Yamabe-type problem on a three-dimensional thin annulus (Q2504054)

The authors consider the problem \[ -\Delta u = u^5\;\text{in}\;\Omega,\quad u>0\;\text{in}\;\Omega,\quad u = 0\;\text{on}\;\partial\Omega, \] where \(\Omega\) is a smooth bounded domain in \(\mathbb{R}^3\). The above equation arises in many mathematical and physical contexts, but its greatest interest lies in its relation with the Yamabe problem. In the paper, the authors obtain a nonexistence results for the case where \(\Omega = A_{\varepsilon}\) is an annulus-shaped domain such that \(A_{\varepsilon}\) becomes ``thin'' as \(\varepsilon\to0\). More precisely, they proved the following: for any given positive constant \(C>0\), there exists \(\varepsilon_0>0\) such that, for any \(\varepsilon<\varepsilon_0\), the problem has no solution such that \(\int_{A_{\varepsilon}} |\nabla u_{\varepsilon}|^2 \leq C\). The proof relies on obtaining refined estimates of the asymptotic profile of solutions \(u_{\varepsilon}\) as \(\varepsilon \to 0\). Another ingredient in the proof is a careful expansion of the associated functional and its gradient near a small neighborhood of highly concentrated functions.