Higher order Neumann problems for Laplace's equation in two dimensions (Q1850192)

The boundary value problem \[ \left. \Delta u(x)=f(x),\quad x\in\Omega; \qquad \frac{\partial^ku}{\partial n^k}\right |_{\partial\Omega}=g(s),\quad s\in\partial\Omega\tag{*} \] in a bounded two-dimensional domain \(\Omega\subset\mathbb R^2\) is considered. The following main results are obtained. Let \(\Omega\) be a simply-connected domain with a smooth boundary \(\partial\Omega\), then every solution of the boundary value problem (*) is a harmonic polynomial of degree \(k-1\) (Theorem 1). For ``generic'' multiply-connected domains \(\Omega\) (in the \(C^m\)-topology with \(m>k\)) this is also true (Theorem 2). However, in domains with corners there are additional solutions.