A geometric inequality in the Heisenberg group and its applications to stable solutions of semilinear problems (Q1000584)

If \((x,y,t)\cdot(x',y',t')=(x+x',y+y',t+t'-2(xy'-x'y))\) is the non-commutative internal product in the Euclidean space \({\mathbb R}^3\), then \({\mathbb H}=(\mathbb R^3,\cdot)\) is called the Heisenberg group. If \(X=\frac{\partial}{\partial x}+2y\frac{\partial}{\partial t}\) and \(Y=\frac{\partial}{\partial y}-2x\frac{\partial}{\partial t}\) are two vector field generating algebra, then \([X,Y]=T=-4\frac{\partial}{\partial t}\). In particular, on each fiber \({\mathcal H}_P=\text{span}\{X, Y\}\) the internal product is given by \(\langle U,V\rangle_{\mathbb H}=\alpha_1\alpha_2+\beta_1\beta_2\), and the norm of \(U\) is \(|U|_{\mathbb H}=\sqrt{\langle U,X\rangle^2_{\mathbb H}+\langle U,Y\rangle^2_{\mathbb H}}\) for every \(U,V\in{\mathcal H}\) with \(U=\alpha_1X+\beta_1Y\) and \(V=\alpha_2X+\beta_2Y\). Let \(u\) be a \(C^2\)-stable weak solution of \(\Delta_{\mathbb H}u=f(u)\) in a domain \(\Omega\subset\mathbb H\). The purpose of this paper is to provide geometric estimates for stable solutions of PDEs in the Heisenberg group by suitably developing some techniques for level set analysis. The authors show that \[ \begin{aligned} \int_\Omega& |\nabla_{{\mathbb H}}\varphi|^2|\nabla_{\mathbb H}u|^2\\ & \geq \int_{\Omega \cap \{ \nabla_{{\mathbb H}}u\neq0\}} \left(|Hu|^2 - \langle(Hu)^2\nu,\nu\rangle_{\mathbb H} - 2(TYuXu-TXuYu)\right)\phi^2 \\ &=\int_{\Omega \cap \{ \nabla_{\mathbb H} u\neq0\}}|\nabla_{\mathbb H}u|^2 \left[h^2+\left(p+\frac{\langle Huv,\nu\rangle_{\mathbb H}}{|\nabla v{\mathbb H}u} \right)^2 + 2\langle T\nu,v \rangle_{\mathbb H}\right]\phi_2,\end{aligned} \] where \(Hu\) is the horizontal intrinsic Hessian, \(h\) is the mean curvature of a level set, \(p\) is its imaginary curvature, \(\nu\) is the intrinsic normal, and \(v\) is the unit tangent, for any \(\varphi\in C^\infty_0(\Omega)\). It is also shown that stable solutions in the entire \(\mathbb H\) satisfying a suitably weighted energy growth and such that \({\langle T\nu,v \rangle_{\mathbb H}\geq0}\) have level sets with vanishing mean curvature.