Nonlinear problems with solutions exhibiting a free boundary on the boundary (Q2485738)

The authors consider the nonlinear boundary value problem \[ -\Delta u+ u=0\qquad\text{in }\Omega, \] \[ u\geq 0\qquad \text{in }\Omega, \] \[ {\partial u\over\partial\nu}+ u^{-\beta}=\lambda f(x,u)\qquad \text{on }\partial\Omega\cap \{u> 0\}. \] Here, \(\Omega\subset \mathbb{R}^n\) is a bounded domain with a smooth boundary, \(0< \beta< 1\) and \(\lambda> 0\). Under suitable assumptions on \(f\) it is shown that the above problem has a maximal solution in \(C^{{1\over 1+\beta}}(\overline\Omega)\) for all \(\lambda^*> 0\) and that there exists \(\lambda^*> 0\) such that this maximal solution is strictly positive in \(\overline\Omega\) for \(\lambda> \lambda^*\). If \(0<\lambda <\lambda^*\) every solution vanishes on a subset of \(\partial\Omega\) with positive \((n-1)\)-dimensional Lebesgue measure. The existence part can be obtained either with the help of a regularization or by minimizing a suitable functional.