A pointwise gradient bound for elliptic equations on compact manifolds with nonnegative Ricci curvature (Q2275858)

The authors obtain pointwise gradient estimates for elliptic equations on compact manifolds with nonnegative Ricci curvature. Let \(M\) be a smooth compact Riemannian manifold with nonnegative Ricci curvature and let \(f \in C^1({\mathbb R})\). Let \(u \in C^3(M)\) be a solution of \(\Delta_g u + f(u) = 0\) on \(M\) and let \(F\) be a anti-derivative of \(f\). The authors then prove that for any point \(x \in M\) \[ \frac{1}{2}|\nabla u(x)|^2 \leq \sum_{r \in [\inf f, \sup f]} F(r) - F(u(x)). \] Also, if equality holds at some point \(x_0 \in \{\nabla u \neq 0\}\), then either quality holds at all points of the connected component of \(M \cap \{\nabla u \neq 0\}\) that contains \(x_0\), or \(\text{Ric}_g(\nabla u, \nabla u)\) vanishes at all points of the connected component of \(M \cap \{\nabla u \neq 0\}\) that contains \(x_0\).