Symmetrization for singular semilinear elliptic equations (Q2014996)

The authors are interested in the following semi-linear Dirichlet problem: \[ -\Delta u=\frac{f(x)}{u^\gamma}\text{ and }u>0\text{ in }G,\quad u=0\text{ on }\partial G, \] where \(G \subset \mathbb{R}^n\) is a bounded domain, \(\gamma\) is a positive constant and \(f\) is a positive function. First the authors define the notion of a weak solution under the additional assumption \(f \in L^1(G)\). Then they prove a uniqueness statement for weak solutions to the above Dirichlet problem. Moreover, the authors prove comparison results between solutions to the above Dirichlet problem and solutions to a Dirichlet problem of the same class. If \(f \in L^\infty(G)\), then \[ \int_0^s u^\ast(r)^\gamma dr \leq \int_0^s v^\ast(r)^\gamma dr\text{ for }s \in (0,\text{meas }G), \] where \(u^\ast\) and \(v^\ast\) are rearrangements of \(u\) and \(v\), \(v\) is a weak solution to \[ -\Delta v=\frac{\|f(x)\|_{L^\infty(G)}}{v^\gamma}\text{ and }v>0\text{ in }G^\sharp,\qquad v=0\text{ on }\partial G^\sharp, \] and \(G^\sharp\) is the ball centered at the origin and having the same measure as \(G\). Finally, the authors generalize this comparison result to the case \(f \in L^p(G)\), \(1<p<\infty\), by using pseudo-rearrangements for \(u^\ast\) and \(v^\ast\) to establish the desired comparison.