Symmetry and monotonicity of singular solutions of double phase problems (Q2656288)

The authors investigate the symmetry and monotonicity of the nontrivial solutions \(u\in C^1(\overline{\Omega}\setminus\Gamma)\) to the following double phase problem: \[ \begin{cases}-\text{div}\, (p|\nabla u|^{p-2}\nabla u+qa(x)|\nabla u|^{q-2}\nabla u)=f(u) &\text{ in } \Omega\setminus\Gamma,\\ u>0 &\text{ in } \Omega\setminus\Gamma,\\ u=0 &\text{ on } \partial\Omega, \end{cases}\tag{P} \] where \(\Omega\subset\mathbb{R}^N\) is a bounded and smooth domain, with \(N\geq 2\) and \(1 <p <q <N\), while \(\Gamma\subset\Omega\) is a closed set, \(a\in L^\infty(\Omega)\cap C^1(\Omega)\) is non-negative, and \(f:\ \mathbb{R}\to \mathbb{R}\) is a locally Lipschitz continuous function with \(f(s)>0\) for \(s>0\). In addition to the above assumptions, let \(\Omega\) be a convex open set, symmetric with respect to the \(x_1\)-direction and let \(\Gamma\subseteq \Omega\cap \{x_1 = 0\}\) be a closed set such that \(\text{Cap}_q(\Gamma)=0\). Moreover, let \(a\) be independent of \(x_1\). The main results are as follows: \begin{itemize} \item [(1)] If \(2\leq p<q\), then any solution \(u\in C^1(\overline{\Omega}\setminus\Gamma)\) to problem (P) is symmetric with respect to the hyperplane \(\{x_1 = 0\}\) and increasing in the \(x_1\)-direction in \(\Omega\cap \{x_1 = 0\}\). \item [(2)] If \(\Gamma=\emptyset\) and \(1<p<q\), then the above conclusion remains valid. \end{itemize} To prove these results, the authors exploit a version of the moving plane method introduced by \textit{B. Sciunzi} [J. Math. Pures Appl. 108, 111123 (2017; Zbl 1371.35114)]. The proof for (P) is a slight modification of the proof for the degenerate case in [\textit{F. Esposito} et al., J. Math. Pures Appl. 126, No. 9, 214--231 (2019; Zbl 1418.35199)], which treated problem (P) with \(1<p=q<\infty\) and \(a\equiv 0\). Due to the difficulty with obtaining the behavior of the gradient of the solution near the set \(\Gamma\), the authors have to restrict (P) to \(p\geq 2\). This restriction is avoided when \(\Gamma=\emptyset\), which gives the boundedness of the gradient of the solution.