A strong maximum principle and a compact support principle for singular elliptic inequalities (Q5916325)

Earlier results on the strong maximum principle for the classical \(m\)-Laplacian differential inequality are generalized to a large class of elliptic differential inequalities of the form \[ u\geq 0,\quad \text{div}(A(|\text{grad }u|)\text{grad }u)- f(u)\leq 0, \] where \(A: ]0,\infty[\to ]0,\infty[\) is a continuous function such that \(\Omega(t):= tA(t)\) is strictly increasing and \(\Omega(0+)= 0\). Moreover, \(f: [0,\infty[\to \mathbb{R}\) is continuous, \(f(0)= 0\) and \(f\) is non-decreasing on a certain interval \([0,\delta[\) for some \(\delta>0\). The first main result shows under additional assumptions on \(A\) and \(f\) that \(u\) must vanish identically if it vanishes in one point (strong maximum principle). The compact support principle referred to in the title is obtained for solutions of the differential inequality \[ u\geq 0,\quad \text{div}(A(|\text{grad } u|)\text{grad } u)- f(u)\geq 0. \] It states appropriate assumptions on \(A\) such that a solution \(u\) (in a domain containing the exterior of a ball) which satisfies \[ u(x)\to 0\quad\text{as }|x|\to\infty, \] must have compact support.