Monotonicity and Symmetry of Solutions of Fully Nonlinear Elliptic Equations on Bounded domains (Q4713360)

The author establishes monotonicity and symmetry properties for solutions of fully nonlinear elliptic equations in bounded domains. Two situations are considered. In the first one the domain is a finite cylinder and the solution is assumed to satisfy a general boundary condition on the lateral boundary of the cylinder. The results extend recent work of \textit{H. Berestycki} and \textit{L. Nirenberg} [J. Geom. Phys. 5, No. 2, 237-275 (1988; Zbl 0698.35031)] on similar problems for semilinear equations with Dirichlet or Neumann boundary conditions. In the second situation the author obtains monotonicity and symmetry results for solutions in smooth bounded domains, generalizing some results of \textit{B. Gidas, W. M. Ni} and \textit{L. Nirenberg} [Commun. Math. Phys. 68, 209-243 (1979; Zbl 0425.35020)] and, more recently, of H. Berestycki and L. Nirenberg (loc. cit.). As in earlier work on such problems, the proofs use various forms of the maximum principle and the method of moving planes.