Regularity of the extremal solution for a biharmonic problem with general nonlinearity (Q1041699)

In this paper, the author considers the following problem: \[ \begin{cases} \triangle^2u = \lambda f(u)&\text{in } B, \\ u = {\partial u}/{\partial n}=0&\text{on }\partial B, \end{cases} \eqno(E_\lambda) \] where \(B\) is the unit ball in \(\mathbb R^N\). The author establishes the following assertion. Assume that \(f\) is a smooth function such that \[ f\quad\text{is nondecreasing,}\quad f(0)>0,\quad\text{and}\quad \lim_{t\to\infty}\frac{f(t)}t=\infty\,. \] Let \(u^*\) be the extremal solution of \((E_\lambda)\). If \(N\leq9\), then \(u^*\) is bounded. The author does not know if this assertion is optimal or not. But for \(f(u)=e^u\), \textit{J. Dávila, L. Dupaigne, I. Guerra} and \textit{M. Montenegro} [SIAM J. Math. Anal. 39, No. 2, 565--592 (2007; Zbl 1138.35022)] proved that if \(N\leq12\), then \(u^*\) is bounded, and if \(N\geq13\), then \(u^*\) is unbounded.