Boundary asymptotics for solutions of the Poisson-Boltzmann equation (Q1099001)

The authors are concerned with a semilinear elliptic equation with mixed boundary conditions. Let \(\Omega_ 0\) be a bounded domain in \({\mathbb{R}}^ 2 \)containing the origin, \(a>0\) such that the closed ball \(\overline{B(0,a)}\) is contained in \(\Omega_ 0\) and let us consider the problem (1) \[ \Delta u=f(u)\quad in\quad \Omega;\quad u=0\quad on\quad \partial_ e\Omega;\quad \partial u/\partial \nu =1/a\quad on\quad \partial_ i\Omega, \] where \(\Omega:=\Omega_ 0\setminus \overline{B(0,a)}\), \(\partial_ e\Omega:=\partial \Omega_ 0\), \(\partial_ i\Omega:=\partial B(0,a)\), \(\nu\) is the exterior unit normal and \[ f(u)=\frac{2\pi e^{\alpha u}}{\int_{\Omega}e^{\alpha u} dx}+\frac{2\pi Ne^{\beta u}}\quad {\int_{\Omega}e^{\beta u} dx}- \frac{2\pi Ne^{-\beta u}}{\int_{\Omega}e^{-\beta u} dx\quad} \] for some positive constants \(\alpha\), \(\beta\), N. The problem (1) has one and only one solution \(u_{\alpha}\). The main result describes the asymptotic behaviour of \(u_{\alpha}\) on \(\partial_ i\Omega\) as \(a\to 0\) \(+.\) A similar result was previously proved in \textit{I. Rubinstein} [``Counterion condensation as an exact limiting property of solutions of Poisson-Boltzmann equation'', SIAM J. Appl. Math. (to appear)] in the case in which \(\Omega_ 0\) is radially symmetric.