Radial symmetry of entire solutions of a biharmonic equation with supercritical exponent (Q2311829)

The authors discuss the symmetry of the entire solution of the semilinear biharmonic equation \[ \Delta^2 u=u^p, \quad \text{in }{\mathbb R}^N, \quad N\geq 5,\quad p>\frac{N+4}{N-4}.\tag{P} \] It is known that the above equation has a radial singular (at zero) solution in the form \(U_s(x)=L|x|^\alpha\) where \[ \alpha=\frac{4}{p-1},\quad L=[\alpha(\alpha + 2)(N- 2- \alpha)(N- 4 - \alpha)]^{1/(p-1)}. \] The main results of the paper are as follows. \par Theorem 1. Assume \(u\in C^4(\mathbb R^N)\) is a solution of (P) where \[ p\in \begin{cases} (9,\infty) & \text{ if }N=5,\\ (5,9) & \text{ if }N=6,\\ \Big(\frac{N+4}{N-4}, \frac{N+3}{N-5}\Big)\cup \Big[\frac{N+2}{N-6}, \infty\Big) & \text{ if }N\geq 7. \end{cases} \] Then \(u\) is radially symmetric about some point \(x^*\in {\mathbb R}^N\) if and only if \(u\) satisfies \[ \lim_{|x|\to \infty}|x|^\alpha u(x)=L.\tag{*} \] \par Theorem 2. Assume \(u\in C^4(\mathbb R^N)\) is a solution of (P) where \(N\geq 6\) and \(p=\frac{N+3}{N-5}\). Then \(u\) is radially symmetric about some point \(x^*\in {\mathbb R}^N\) if and only if there exists \(0<\varepsilon_0<1/10\) such that \[ |x|^\alpha u(x)-L=o(|x|^{-\varepsilon_0})\qquad \mbox{as }|x|\to \infty. \] \par Theorem 3. Assume \(u\in C^4(\mathbb R^N)\) is a solution of (P) where \(N\geq 6\) and \(p\in \Big(\frac{N+3}{N-5}, \frac{N+2}{N-6}\Big)\). Then \(u\) is radially symmetric about some point \(x^*\in {\mathbb R}^N\) if and only if \[ |x|^\alpha u(x)-L=o(|x|^{5-N+2\alpha})\qquad \text{as }|x|\to \infty. \]