The Dirichlet problem for the \(\alpha \)-singular minimal surface equation (Q1721767)

Let $\Omega \subset \mathbb{ R}^n$ be a bounded mean convex domain and $\alpha$ be a constant. Recall that $\Omega$ is said to be mean convex if the mean curvature of the boundary $\partial \Omega$ with respect to the inner normal is nonnegative at every point. Given a positive function $\varphi>0$ defined on $\partial \Omega$, consider the following Dirichlet problem \begin{gather*} \operatorname{div}\left(\frac{Du}{\sqrt{1+|Du|^2}}\right) = \frac{\alpha}{u\sqrt{1+|Du|^2}} \quad \text {in }\Omega\tag{1} \\ u=\varphi \quad \text {on }\partial \Omega, \tag{2} \end{gather*} where$D$ and div are the gradient and divergence operators. This equation is called the $\alpha$-singular minimal surface equation. Note that in case of $\alpha =0$, it is the known minimal surface equation. In fact, if a positive function $u$ satisfies the above equations, then the mean curvature of the graph $\Sigma_u:= \left\{(x, u(x)): x \in \Omega\right\}$ is $\alpha/(nu\sqrt{1+|Du|^2})$. Other interesting cases are $\alpha =1$ (cf. [\textit{R. Boehme} et al., Pac. J. Math. 88, 247--278 (1980; Zbl 0483.49038)], [\textit{U. Dierkes} and \textit{G. Huisken}, Pac. J. Math. 141, No. 1, 47--54 (1990; Zbl 0652.49029)]) or $\alpha = -n$. In the latter case, the graph $\Sigma_u$ is a minimal hypersurface in the upper halfspace model of the hyperbolic space. \par In this paper, the author proves the existence and uniqueness of classical solutions of the above equations when $\alpha <0$. More precisely, assume $\partial \Omega$ is $C^{2, \gamma}$ for some $\gamma \in (0,1)$ and $\alpha <0$. The author proves that if $\varphi \in C^{2, \gamma}(\partial \Omega)$ is a positive function, then there exists a unique positive solution $u \in C^{2, \gamma}(\overline{\Omega})$ statisfying equations (1) and (2).