On solutions of the exterior Dirichlet problem for the biharmonic equation with a finite weighted Dirichlet integral. (Q1809978)

Let \(\Omega\) be an unbounded domain in \(\mathbb{R}^n\), \(n\geq 5\), whose complement is a bounded simply connected domain. Consider the exterior Dirichlet problem for the biharmonic equation: \(\Delta^2u(x)= 0\) on \(\Omega\), with the boundary conditions \(u(x)= {\partial u\over\partial\nu}(x)= 0\) on \(\partial\Omega\), and for a real number \(a\), \[ D_au(x)= \int_\Omega| x|^a \sum_{|\alpha|= 2}| D^\alpha u(x)|^2\,dx< \infty. \] Using a variational method, this paper gives formulas for the dimension of the solution space (depending on \(a\)) for the above problem.