Heteroclinic solutions of singular quasilinear bistable equations (Q523539)

The authors study the action functional \[ {\mathcal J}(u)=\int_{{\mathbb R}\times\omega}\left(1-\sqrt{1-|\nabla u|^2}+W(u)\right)\,d\bar x \] where \(W\) is a \(C^1\) double well potential (\(W(s)>0\) if \(s\neq-1,\,1\) and \(W(\pm1)=0\)) and \(\omega\) a bounded domain in \({\mathbb R}^{N-1}\). The main results are: (A) \({\mathcal J}\) attains its infimum in \[ {\mathcal X}:=\{u\in W^{1,\infty}({\mathbb R}\times\omega)\,|\, \|\nabla u\|_\infty\leq 1\quad\text{and }\lim_{x\to\pm\infty}u(x,y)=\pm1 \quad\text{uniformly in } y\in\omega\}. \] Any minimizer \(u\) is a function of the first variable (\(x\)) only and is the unique solution, up to translation, of \[ \left(\frac{u'}{\sqrt{1-|u'|^2}}\right)'=W'(u)\quad\text{in }{\mathbb R} \] with the property \[ \lim_{x\to\pm\infty}(u(x),u'(x))=(\pm1,0). \] Also, \(\|u'\|_\infty<1\), \(u\in C^\infty\) and \(u\) satisfies the energy conservation law \[ 1-\frac{1}{\sqrt{1-|u'|^2}}+W(u)=0. \] (B) For the ``non-autonomous'' functional \[ {\mathcal L}_a(u)=\int_{{\mathbb R}}\left(1-\sqrt{1-|u'|^2}+a(t) W(u)\right)\,dt \] where \(a=a(t)\) is a bounded positive function, bounded away from zero, with \(\lim_{|t|\to\infty}a(t)= \sup a\), then \({\mathcal L}_a\) attains its infimum at some function \[ u_a\in {\mathcal X}_1:=\{u\in W^{1,\infty}({\mathbb R})\,|\, \|u'\|_\infty\leq 1\quad\text{and }\lim_{t\to\pm\infty}u(t)=\pm1 \}. \] Moreover \(\|u'_a\|_\infty<1\). (Remark: in fact a more general result is proved.) (C) Results of a similar nature to those mentioned in 2 are obtained under special symmetry conditions: \((i)\) when \(a\) is \(T\)-periodic, and \((ii)\) when \(a\) is even, increasing in the half-line \([0,\infty)\) and positive near \(+\infty\). Properties of a monotone rearrangement that goes back to \textit{G. Carbou} [Ann. Inst. Henri Poincaré, Anal. Non Linéaire 12, No. 3, 305--318 (1995; Zbl 0835.35045)], play a fundamental role in the technique of proof of (A). In the proof of the fact that the absolute value of the derivative of the minimizer does not attain the value \(1\) a stretching argument is used. For the non-autonomous periodic case, some ideas are borrowed from \textit{D. Bonheure} et al. [Differ. Integral Equ. 26, No. 11--12, 1411--1428 (2013; Zbl 1313.34132)]. In the case of even \(a\), minimization is performed in a subspace consisting of odd functions (or rather functions defined in the half-line).