Positivity and radial symmetry of solutions to some variational problems in \(\mathbb R^N\) (Q1876741)

The author extends various results on the symmetry and positivity of smooth minimizers for functionals involving scalar functions to functionals involving vector functions. Specifically, the functionals are of the form \[ J(\vec v) = \int_{\mathbb R^N} \sum_{i=1}^n M(| Dv_i| ) - F(| x| ,\vec v)\, dx \] where \(\vec v = (v_1, \dots, v_n)\), \(M\) is a nonnegative convex function, and \(F\) is a Carathéodory function, which is differentiable with respect to \(\vec v\), and the minimizers are subject to the constraints \[ \int_{\mathbb R^N} G_{ij}(v_i)\, dx = c_{ij} \tag{*} \] for given \(C^1\) functions \(G_{ij}\) (\(i=1, \dots,n\) and \(j= 1, \dots, k_i\)). Assuming appropriate monotonicity conditions for the partial derivatives of \(F\) and the vanishing of \(F\), \(G_{ij}\) and their partial derivatives with respect to \(v\) when \(v=0\), the author shows that any minimizer of the functional \(J\) subject to the constraints (*) must be positive and radially symmetric in \(\mathbb R^N\). The scalar case has been extensively studied.