A strong maximum principle and a compact support principle for singular elliptic inequalities (Q5915354)

The paper deals with the differential inequalities \[ {\text{ div} \big\{ A(|Du|)Du\big\}-f(u)\leq 0,\qquad u\geq 0,}\tag{1} \] \[ {\text{ div} \big\{ A(|Du|)Du\big\}-f(u)\geq 0,\qquad u\geq 0,} \tag{2} \] in a (possibly unbounded) domain \(D\subset {\mathbb{R}}^n,\) \(n\geq 2,\) where \(A=A(t)\) and \(f(t)\) satisfy the following conditions: \(A\in C(0,\infty),\) \(tA(t)\) is strictly increasing in \((0,\infty)\) and \(\lim_{t\to 0}tA(t)=0,\) \(f\in C[0,\infty),\) \(f(0)=0\) and \(f\) is non-decreasing on some interval \([0,\delta),\) \(\delta>0.\) Set \(F(t)=\int_0^t f(s)ds,\) \(s>0,\) \(\Omega(t)=tA(t)\) for \(t>0,\) \(\Omega(0)=0\) and \[ H(t)=t\Omega(t)-\int_0^t \Omega(s)ds,\quad t\geq 0. \] The main results of the paper are as follows: Strong maximum principle: Suppose \[ \liminf_{t\to 0} {{H(t)}\over {t\Omega(t)}}>0, \] and either \(f(s)\equiv 0\) for \(s\in [0,\tau),\) \(\tau>0,\) or \[ \int_0^\delta {{ds}\over {H^{-1}(F(s))}}=\infty. \] If \(u\in C^1(D)\) is a weak solution of \((1)\) with \(u(x_0)=0\) for some \(x_0\in D,\) then \(u\equiv 0\) in \(D.\) Compact support principle: Suppose \(f(s)>0\) for \(s\in(0,\delta)\) and \[ \int_0^\delta {{ds}\over {H^{-1}(F(s))}}<\infty. \] Let \(D\) be unbounded with \(\{x\in{\mathbb{R}}^n\colon\;|x|>R\}\subset D\) for some \(R>0.\) If \(u\in C^1(D)\) is a weak solution of \((2)\) with \(\lim_{|x|\to\infty}u(x)=0,\) then there exists \(R_1\geq R\) such that \(u(x)\equiv 0\) for \(|x|>R_1.\)