Critical exponents and critical dimensions of polyharmonic operators (Q2638433)

This is a remarkable study of the polyharmonic critical exponent problem \[ (-\Delta)^ ku=\lambda u+g(u)\text{ on } B_ n(0,1)\subset {\mathbb{R}}^ n,\quad n>2k, \] with Dirichlet boundary conditions. Here \(g(u)=u| u|^{s-1}\) with the critical exponent \(s=(n+2k)/(n- 2k).\) It is known from the fundamental work of \textit{H. Brezis} and \textit{L. Nirenberg} [Commun. Pure Appl. Math. 36, 437-477 (1983; Zbl 0541.35029)] for the case \(k=1\), that the dimension \(n=3\) is critical in the sense, that there is a \(\lambda^*>0\), such that a positive radial solution does exist only for \(\lambda \in (\lambda^*,\lambda_ 1)\), \(\lambda_ 1\) the first eigenvalue of the Laplacian, while for \(n\geq 4\) this interval enlarges to \((0,\lambda_ 1).\) In this paper necessary conditions for the case \(k\geq 2\) are studied, and it is shown, that the dimension \(n=2k+1\) is again critical; no positive solutions can exist for \(\lambda <\lambda^*_{k,n}\) and estimates for \(\lambda^*_{k,n}\) from below are given. It is interesting that \(\lambda^*_{k,n}\) increases rapidly with k e.g. for \(k=5\) (that is for \(\Delta^ 5u+u+u^{21}=0\) on \(B\subset {\mathbb{R}}^{11})\) no nontrivial radial solution exists for \(\lambda <3\cdot 10^ 8.\) Especially the case \(k=2\) is treated more elaborately - the authors show \(\lambda^*_{2,n}\geq n(n^ 2-16)(8-n)/4\) and thus can prove for \(k=2\) their full conjecture: Precisely those dimensions n with \(2k<n<4k\) are critical and for \(n\geq 4k\) solutions exist for all \(\lambda\) with \(0<\lambda <\lambda_ 1^{(k)}\), the first eigenvalue of the k-harmonic operator. The existence part for \(k=2\) follows from \textit{D. E. Edmunds}, \textit{D. Fortunato} and \textit{E. Jannelli} [Arch. Ration. Mech. Anal. 112, No.3, 269-289 (1990)], who estimated also \(\lambda^*_{2,n}\) from above. The second part of the paper treats again the biharmonic operator, but with the term \(\lambda\) u substituted by \(\lambda u| u|^{q-1}\), \(1\leq q<s\), and it is shown that the dimensions 5, 6, and 7 remain critical for \(1\leq q<s_ 1<s\). General nonlinearities are considered in the last part.