Singular solutions to a semilinear biharmonic equation with a general critical nonlinearity (Q2281286)

The authors study the solutions \(0u\in H^2_{\mathrm{loc}}(\mathbb{R}^n\setminus \{0\})\) of the semilinear biharmonic equation \[ \Delta^2u=\frac{1}{\vert x\vert^{\frac{n+4}{2}}}g(\vert x\vert ^{\frac{n-4}{2}}u) \quad \text{in}\quad \mathbb{R}^n\setminus \{0\}\tag{1} \] for \(n\geq 5\), with \(0g=g(t)\in C^1(\mathbb{R}_+)\) satisfying \[\begin{cases} \lim_{t\rightarrow 0}g(t)=0, \beta=\lim_{t\rightarrow 0}g'(t)\frac{n^2(n-4)^2}{16},\\ \frac{g(t)}{t}g'(t)\leq \frac{n+4}{n-4}\frac{g(t)}{t}\,, \quad t0,\\ g(t)\geq ct^q, t\geq 1, \tag{2} \end{cases} \] where \(c0\) and \(q1\). First, if either \(u\not\in L^{\frac{2n}{n-4}}(\mathbb{R}^n)\) or \(g'(t)\frac{n+4}{n-2}\frac{g(t)}{t}\) a.e. \(t0\), this \(u\) is radially symmetric-decreasing with respect to the origin. This restriction is sharp because of the exsitence of the translation invariant solution \(u\in L^{\frac{2n}{n-4}}(\mathbb{R}^n)\) to \[ \Delta^2u=u^{\frac{n+4}{n-4}} \quad \mbox{in }\mathbb{R}^n\setminus \{0\}. \] Second, the above radially symmetric solution takes the form \[ u(x)=\vert x\vert^{-\frac{n-4}{2}}v(s), \quad s=\log \vert x\vert, \] with \(v=v(s)\) satisfying \[ v^{(4)}-Av''+Bv=g(v) \quad \text{in}\quad\mathbb{R}, \quad A=\frac{n(n-4)+8}{2}, \ B=\frac{n^2(n-4)^2}{16}. \tag{3} \] This \(v\) is either constant, or homoclinic to zero, or periodic.