Non degeneracy of critical points of the Robin function with respect to deformations of the domain (Q2436551)

Let \(\Omega\subset\mathbb R^N\), \(N\geq 2\) be a domain of class \(C^k\), \(k\geq 4\). The Robin function of \(\Omega\) is defined by \(t(x)=H_x(x)\) for all \(x\in \Omega\). Here \(H_y\) is the regular part of the Green function in \(\Omega\), that is, \(H_y\) is a harmonic function in \(\Omega\) and satisfies for \(x\in \partial\Omega\) the boundary condition \(H_y(x)=-\ln |x-y|\), if \(N=2\), or \(H_y(x)=(N-2)^{-1}|x-y|^{2-n}\), if \(N\geq 3\). The authors are interested in the study of the critical points for the Robin function \(t(x)\) with respect to deformations of the domain \(\Omega\). More precisely, the main result of the paper establishes that the set of all \(C^k\) functions \(\theta\) with \(\|\theta\|_k\leq \rho\) for which the critical points of the Robin function associated with the domain \(\Omega_\theta=(I+\theta)\Omega\) are non degenerate, is a residual (and hence dense) set provided \(\rho\) is small enough.