Solutions of polyharmonic Dirichlet problems derived from general solutions in the plane (Q1174787)

Consider the \(n\)-th order homogeneous equation of the form \[ a_ 0{\partial^ n u \over \partial x^ n}+a_ 1{\partial^ n u \over \partial x^{n-1}\partial y}+\cdots+a_{n-1}{\partial^ n u \over \partial x\partial y^{n-1}}+{\partial^ n u \over \partial y^ n}=0, \leqno(*) \] where \(n\geq 1\) and the coefficients are complex constants. The author determines that the general solution can be written as \(u(x,y)=\sum_{i=1}^ n y^{\lambda_ i}g_ i(x-c_ iy)\), where the \(\lambda_ i\) are certain multiplicity indices of the \(c_ i\) which arise from factoring the differential operator into a product of first order operators. Each \(g_ i\) is a \(C^ n\) function of a real variable if \(c_ i\) is real and is a holomorphic function of a complex variable if \(c_ i\) is nonreal. In particular, when (*) is the polyharmonic equation \(\Delta^ m u=0\), one obtains all \(m\)-harmonic polynomials and, in turn, all \(m\)-harmonic functions in the plane. As a consequence, one can solve the Dirichlet problem for the polyharmonic equation in the unit disk. All of the essential ideas are contained in the biharmonic case.