On the number of critical points of stable solutions in bounded strip-like domains (Q2664911)

Let \(\Omega\) be a smooth bounded domain in \(\mathbb{R}^N\), with \(N\geq 2\), and let \(f:\mathbb{R}\rightarrow \mathbb{R}\) be a \(C^1\) convex function, with \(f(0)>0\). It is a well known fact that the problem \[ \begin{cases} -\Delta u =\lambda f(u)\ \ \ &\text{ in} \ \ \Omega\\ u>0 & \text{ in} \ \ \Omega\\ u=0 & \text{ on} \ \ \partial \Omega\end{cases} \tag{\(P_\lambda\)} \] admits a positive stable solution for all \(\lambda>0\) small enough. The aim of the paper under review is to investigate the multiplicity of critical points of such solutions in dependence of the geometry of \(\Omega\). The first main result states that, for each \(k\in \mathbb{N}\), there exists a family \(\{\Omega_\varepsilon\}_{\varepsilon>0}\) of smooth bounded domains in \(\mathbb{R}^{N+1}\) having the following properties: \begin{itemize} \item[1)] \(\Omega_\varepsilon\) is star shaped with respect to the origin and symmetric with respect to the hyperplanes \(x_j=0\), \(j=1,...,N\) and \(y=0\); \item[2)] \(\Omega_\varepsilon\) is locally strip-like, that is \(\lim_{\varepsilon \rightarrow 0}|K\cap (S\Delta \Omega_\varepsilon)|=0\), for all compact sets \(K\subset \mathbb{R}^{N+1}\), where \(S=\mathbb{R}^N\times (-1,1)\); \item[3)] if \(\lambda>0\) is small enough, and \(u_\varepsilon\) is the stable solution of problem \((P_\lambda)\), with \(\Omega=\Omega_\varepsilon\), then \(u_\varepsilon\) has at least \(k\) maximum points. \end{itemize} The authors also investigate the question of finding sufficient conditions on the geometry of the domain to get the uniqueness of critical points of solutions. For \(N\geq 3\), this is still an open problem even in the case of the torsion problem, i.e., when \(\lambda f=1\). Instead, for \(N=2\) it is known that if \(\partial \Omega\) has a positive curvature, the solution of the torsion problem admits a unique critical point. As a consequence of the second main result of this paper one has that the positivity of the mean curvature of the domain is a condition that does not guarantee the validity of the previous uniqueness result in higher dimensions.