Singular variation of domains and \(L^ \infty\) boundedness of eigenfunctions for some semi-linear elliptic equations (Q1330245)

Let \(M\) be a bounded domain in \(\mathbb{R}^ 2\) with smooth boundary \(\partial M\). Let \(w\) be a fixed point in \(M\). By \(B(\varepsilon; w)\) we denote the ball of center \(w\) with radius \(\varepsilon>0\). We remove \(\overline{B(\varepsilon; w)}\) from \(M\) and we put \(M_ \varepsilon= M\setminus \overline{B(\varepsilon; w)}\). Fix \(p\in (1,\infty)\). We put \[ \lambda (\varepsilon)= \inf_{X_ \varepsilon} \int_{M_ \varepsilon} | \nabla u|^ 2 dx, \tag{1} \] where \(X_ \varepsilon= \{u\in H^ 1(M_ \varepsilon)\): \(\| u\|_{L^{p+1} (M_ \varepsilon)} =1\), \(u=0\) on \(\partial M\), \(u\geq 0\) in \(M_ \varepsilon\}\). Then, we know that there exists at least one solution \(u_ \varepsilon\) which attains (1). It satisfies \[ -\Delta u_ \varepsilon= \lambda (\varepsilon) u^ p_{\varepsilon} \quad \text{in } M_ \varepsilon,\qquad {\partial\over {\partial\nu_ x}} u_ \varepsilon=0 \quad \text{on } \partial B_ \varepsilon, \qquad u_ \varepsilon=0 \quad \text{on } \partial M. \] Here \(\partial/ \partial\nu_ x\) denotes the exterior normal derivative. In this paper we prove the following Theorem. There exists a positive constant \(C\) independent of \(\varepsilon\) such that \[ \sup_{u_ \varepsilon \in S_ \varepsilon} \sup_{x\in M_ \varepsilon} u_ \varepsilon(x)<C, \] where \(S_ \varepsilon\) is the set of minimizers of (1).