Global existence and uniqueness results for singular solutions of the capillarity equation (Q1084572)

We study the singular solutions of the capillarity equation in \({\mathbb{R}}^ N:\) \(div(Dv/(\sqrt{1+| Dv|^ 2})=Kv,\) with \(k<0\). We consider the case of rotationally symmetric solutions with an isolated singularity are the origin. The problem may be reduced to the differential ordinary equation in \((0,+\infty):\) \(r^{N- 1}u'/\sqrt{1+u^{'2}}=-(N-1)r^{N-1}u,\) with \(\lim_{r\to 0}u(r)=- \infty\) (up to the change of u into -u). Now we write the equation in terms of \(z=u'/\sqrt{1+u^{'2}}\), which leads us to a second order nonlinear equation \[ \Delta z=z''+(N-1)z'/r=(N-1)z(1/r^ 2-1(\sqrt{1- z^ 2})), \] with \(\lim_{r\to 0}z(r)=1\), \(\lim_{r\to 0}z'(r)=0\). First we improve the results of local existence already known, by a fixed-point method applied to z instead of u. Then with a priori estimates of the energy for z and u we get results of global existence of singular solutions in \((0,+\infty):\) each local singular solution has a unique extension on \((0,+\infty)\); each solution has a countable number of zeros; the zeros of function z are asymptotically separated by a distance of \(\Pi\) /\(\sqrt{N-1}\), and \(\lim_{r\to +\infty}z(r)=\lim_{r\to +\infty}z'(r)=\lim_{r\to +\infty}u(r)=\lim_{r\to +\infty}u'(r)=0.\) The most difficult problem is the question of the uniqueness, as the maximum principle fails. With local comparison methods we obtain some accurate estimates near the origin for locally concave functions u. This allows us to prove the uniqueness of singular solutions u concave near the origin.