On local behavior of singular positive solutions to nonlocal elliptic equations (Q522262)

Let \(\Omega\) be an open set in \(\mathbb{R}^n\) \ \((n\geq2)\), let \(\Lambda\subset \Omega\) be a closed subset of measure zero, and let \(\sigma\in (0,1)\). The authors consider the nonlocal Yamabe equation \[ (-\Delta)^{\sigma}u=u^{\frac{n+2\sigma}{n-2\sigma}}\text{ in }\Omega \setminus \Lambda,\quad u>0\text{ in }\mathbb{R}^n,\tag{1} \] where \((-\Delta)^{\sigma}\) is the fractional Laplace operator. Symmetry properties of the singular solutions to equation \((1)\) are investigated. For \(\Omega=\mathbb{R}^n\) and \(\Lambda = \mathbb{R}^k\), with \(1\leq k\leq n-2\sigma\), the authors prove that a singular solution \(u\) to (1) is cylindrically symmetric, that is \(u(x',x'')=u(x',\tilde{x}'')\) for \(x'\in \mathbb{R}^k\) and \(x'',\tilde{x}''\in \mathbb{R}^{n-k}\), with \(|x''|=|\tilde{x}''|\). When \(\Omega \neq \mathbb{R}^n\) and the singular set \(\Lambda\) is a smooth \(k\)-dimensional compact submanifold, the authors prove that the singular solutions satisfy an asymptotic cylindrical symmetry property. More precisely, if \(u\) is a singular solution to \((1)\), \(N\) is a tubular neighborhood of \(\Lambda\), and \(\Pi\) is the orthogonal projection of \(N\) onto \(\Lambda\), the authors show that for each \(z\in \Lambda\) and for each \(x,x'\in N\), with \(\Pi(x)=\Pi(x')=z\) and \(|x-z|=|x'-z|=r\), one has \(u(x)=u(x')(1+O(r))\) as \(r\rightarrow 0^+\), where \(O(r)\) is uniform with respect to \(z\). Moreover, the authors establish the asymptotic blow up estimate \[ u(x)\leq C\text{dist}(x,\Lambda)^{-\frac{n-2\sigma}{2}},\quad x\in \Omega \setminus \Lambda,\tag{2} \] where \(C>0\) is a constant, which actually holds for more general compact sets \(\Lambda\) having \(0\)-fractional capacity. To establish the above results, the authors use the extension formulation introduced by Caffarelli and Silvestre that transforms (1) into an equivalent local equation in one dimension higher with Neumann boundary condition. Then, the proofs are based on some properties connecting the Hausdorff dimension and the fractional capacity of compact sets in \(\mathbb{R}^n\), on a maximum principle and a Harnack inequality for solutions of the extended equation, and on the invariance of the extended equation under certain Kelvin transformations. Finally, applications of estimate (2) to the Yamabe problem on conformally flat manifolds are also given.