Blow-up behavior for a degenerate elliptic \(\sinh \)-Poisson equation with variable intensities (Q514275)

The authors provide a complete blow-up picture for the solution sequences to the elliptic \({\sinh}\)-Poisson equation with variable intensities \[ \begin{cases} -\Delta v= \lambda \int_{[-1,1]} \frac{\alpha e^{\alpha v}}{\int\int_\Omega e^{\alpha'v} {\mathcal P}(d\alpha')dx} {\mathcal P}(d\alpha)& \text{ in } \Omega,\\ v=0 & \text{ on } \Omega. \end{cases} \] Equations like this arise in the context of statistical mechanics describing two-dimensional turbulence, as initiated by Onsager. The vortex intensities are described in terms of a probability measure \({\mathcal P}\) defined on the interval \( [-1,1]\). Under Dirichlet boundary conditions, the exclusion of boundary blow-up points is established. It is shown that the concentration mass does not have residual \(L^1\)-terms (``residual vanishing'') and the location of the blow-up points in terms of Kirchhoff's Hamiltonian is determined. The measure \({\mathcal P}\) is a general Borel measure, which could be ``degenerate'' in the sense that \({\mathcal P}(\{ a^*_-\})=0={\mathcal P}(\{ \alpha^*_+ \}) \), where \(\alpha_-^*=\min\text{supp\,}{\mathcal P}\) and \(\alpha_+^*=\max\text{supp\,}{\mathcal P}\). The main results are new for the standard \(\sinh\)-Poisson equation as well.