Some remarks on half space problems (Q841360)

The author is concerned with qualitative properties of non-negative solutions for the elliptic problems of the following type in half-space: \(-\Delta u=f(u)\) in \(\mathbb R^n_+\), \(u=0\) on \(\partial \mathbb R^n_+\). Here \(f\) is a \(C^1\) function with the property \(f(0)<0\). The main result of the paper is as follows: Let \(u\) be a non-negative bounded solution of the above problem. (1) Either \(u\) is increasing with respect to the \(x_1\)-variable or the equation \(-u''=f(u)\), \(u(0)=u'(0)=0\) on the positive semiaxis can be extended to a solution \(\hat w\) to the whole \(\mathbb R\) and \(\hat w\) belongs to the hull \(H(u)\) of \(u\). (2) If \(u\) has finite Morse index or there exists \(\alpha>0\) such that \(\inf\{ u(x): x_1\geq \alpha\}>0\) then \(u\) is increasing with respect to the \(x_1\) variable. (3) If \(u\) is increasing with respect to \(x_1\) and the dimension \(n\leq 3\), then \(u\) is a function of \(x_1\) only. The last section of the paper contains an application of the main result, namely it is investigated the uniqueness of the non-negative soluitions for the problem \(-\varepsilon^2\Delta u=f(u)\) in \(\Omega\), \(u=0\) on \(\partial\Omega\), where \(\Omega\) is a smooth and bounded domain and \(\varepsilon>0\) is small.