On the subordinate killed B.M in bounded domains and existence results for nonlinear fractional Dirichlet problems (Q663223)

The authors study certain nonlinear boundary value problems related to the fractional Laplacian \(\left(-\Delta_{|D}\right)^{\frac{\alpha}{2}}\), \(\alpha\in (0,2)\), in case \(D\) is a bounded \(C^{1,1}\)-domain in \(\mathbb{R}^d\). This operator is connected with the process \(Z_{\alpha}^D\) obtained by subordinating the killed Brownian motion in \(D\) via an independent \(\alpha/2\)-stable subordinator. The potential theory of this process has been studied earlier by \textit{J. Glover} et al. [J. Funct. Anal. 215, No. 2, 399--426 (2004; Zbl 1061.60077)]. In particular, it was shown in that paper that harmonic functions with respect to \(\left(-\Delta_{|D}\right)^{\frac{\alpha}{2}}\) cannot be bounded. This explains the reason behind the modified boundary conditions in the paper under review. To be more precise, the first problem studied by the authors is \[ \left(-\Delta_{|D}\right)^{\frac{\alpha}{2}}u=\phi(\cdot, u) \quad \text{in }D \text{ in the distributional sense}; \quad \lim_{x\to \partial D} \delta(x)^{2-\alpha}u(x)= 0\, . \] Here \(\delta(x)\) denotes the distance of \(x\) to the boundary \(\partial D\). The assumptions on \(\phi\) are that \(\phi\) on \(D\times (0,\infty)\) is non-negative, measurable, continuous and non-decreasing in the second variable, and, for each \(c>0\), \(x\mapsto (\delta(x)^{2-\alpha} \phi(x, c\delta(x)^{2-\alpha})\) is in a certain Kato class \(K_{\alpha}(D)\) defined in terms of the Green function \(G_{\alpha}^D(x,y)\) of the process \(Z_{\alpha}^D\). Under these conditions, it is shown that \(u(x):=G_{\alpha}^D(\phi(\cdot, u))(x)\) is a positive continuous solutions of the problem above. The properties of the Green function play an important role in the proof. The authors also study another similar nonlinear boundary value problem.