On a subharmonic functional of some even order elliptic problems (Q678705)

The paper deals with the higher-order problem \[ \sum^n_{i=1} (-1)^ic_i\Delta^iu=0\quad\text{in }E\subset\mathbb{R}^2,\quad c_i\geq 0,\;c_n>0, \] with \(u=u_0\), \(\Delta u=0\), \(D^{|\alpha|}u= 0\), \(|\alpha|= 3,\dots,n\) on \(\partial E\). In order to get information about the maximum principles or uniqueness results, the author introduces a suitable subharmonic functional. More precisely, let \(H_1(v)=0\), \(H_2(v)= v^2/2\) and, for \(m\geq 3\), \[ H_m(v)= (-1)^mv\Delta^{m-2}v+ 2\sum^2_{i=1} H_{m-1}(v_{x_i})-H_{m-2}(\Delta v). \] A key result is the following: the functional \(F(u)= \sum^n_{i=1} c_iH_i(\Delta u)+{c_0\over 2} u^2\) is a subharmonic function when computed on solutions of the problem above. As a consequence, the author proves a uniqueness result for solutions of the following equation \[ \sum^n_{i=1} (-1)^ic_i\Delta^iu+ g(x,y)w(u)= f(x,y) \] equipped with suitable boundary conditions. Also the one-dimensional case is discussed.