Compactness of the support and nonexistence of singularities for nonlinear elliptic systems of arbitrary order (Q1920694)

Let \(G\) be a (not necessarily bounded) domain in \(\mathbb{R}^n\) and consider the elliptic system \[ \sum_{|\alpha|=m} (-D)^\alpha A_\alpha(x,u,Du,\dots,D^mu)+ A(x,u)= \sum_{|\alpha|=m} (-D)^\alpha f_\alpha(x)+f_0(x) \quad\text{in }G, \] where \(u\), \(A^\alpha\), \(A\), \(f_\alpha\) and \(f_0\) are vector functions, \(A^i(x,z)z^i_\alpha\geq \nu|z_m|^p\), \(A^i(x,u)u^i\geq|u|^q/s(x)\), plus some additional assumption, with \(p\geq1\), \(q>0\), \(s(x)\geq0\), and \(|z_m|^2=\sum_i \sum_{|\alpha|=m} (z^i_\alpha)^2\). Solutions are functions with local finite energy satisfying the system in some (integral) weak sense. They are supposed to be in the space \(W^{m,p}\cap L^{q,1/s}\). If \(q<p\), conditions on the growth of solutions at infinity (roughly speaking, that \(|u(x)|<c|x|^{mp/(p-q)} s(x)^{-1/(p-q)}\), with \(c>0\)) are given that imply that \(u=0\) near infinity if \(f_\alpha\) and \(f_0\) have the same property. Uniqueness for the Dirichlet problem under some additional monotonicity assumptions is also proved. Proofs use energy inequalities, test functions and interpolation inequalities. An example shows that results are sharp. If \(q>p\), conditions are obtained for removability of bounded singularities or a singular point at infinity, and uniqueness to the Dirichlet problem. If \(s\) is constant, solutions cannot have isolated singularities for \(q\geq np/(n-mp)\) and there is no singularity at infinity if \(q\leq np/(n-mp)\). Methods of proof are similar and it is also shown that results are sharp. The case \(m=1\) is considered at the end of the paper in order to find an agreement between these results and the case of a single equation.