Gidas-Ni-Nirenberg results for finite difference equations: estimates of approximate symmetry (Q2371841)

The paper is inspired by the Gidas-Ni-Nirenberg theorem stating that in an \(n\)-dimensional ball, all the positive solutions \(u\) of the \(f\)-inhomogeneous Laplace equation \(\Delta_hu=f(u)\) in \(\Omega\), \(u=0\) on \(\partial\Omega\) are radially symmetric for all the reasonable \(f\). The authors focus the similar (approximate) inheritance of the symmetry for the discretized versions of the same equation (using cubic mesh of size \(h\)). The authors start by recalling an elementary \(n=1\) counterexample, showing that one can only expect an approximate inheritance of the symmetry, and they obtain some precise results contrasting the defects of symmetry \(O(h)\) at \(n=1\) and \(O(1/| \log h| )\) at \(n>1\).