On Lane-Emden systems with singular nonlinearities and applications to MEMS (Q680354)

Let \(\Omega\) be a smooth domain in \(\mathbb{R}^N\) (\(N\geq 2\)), and let \(f,g:\overline{\Omega}\rightarrow [0,1]\) be two Hölder continuous functions such that \(\sup_\Omega f>0\), \(\sup_\Omega g>0\). Finally, let \(\lambda,\mu\) be two positive parameters. In this paper, the authors study the existence-non existence of solutions for the following Lane-Emden system \((S_{\lambda,\mu})\) \[ \begin{aligned} &-\Delta u=\lambda \frac{f(x)}{(1-v)^2},\quad-\Delta v=\mu \frac{g(x)}{(1-u)^2},\quad\text{in}\quad \Omega,\\ &0\leq u,v<1,\quad\text{in}\quad \Omega,\\ &u=v=0,\quad\text{on}\quad \partial \Omega. \end{aligned} \] The authors prove that there exists a curve \(\Gamma\subset \mathbb{R}_+^2\) which separates \(\mathbb{R}_+^2\) into two connected sets \(\mathcal{O}_1,\mathcal{O}_2\) such that: -- the system \((S_{\lambda,\mu})\) admits a positive classical minimal solution for each \((\lambda,\mu)\in \mathcal{O}_1\), -- the system \((S_{\lambda,\mu})\) admits no solution for each \((\lambda,\mu)\in \mathcal{O}_2\). The authors provide a localization of the critical curve \(\Gamma\) by showing that \[ \mathcal{O}_1\supset \Big(0, \frac{C}{\sup_\Omega f}\Big]\times \Big(0, \frac{C}{\sup_\Omega g}\Big], \] where \[ C=\max\Big\{\frac{8N}{27},\frac{6N-8}{9}\Big\}\Big(\frac{\omega_N}{|\Omega|}\Big) \] and \(\omega_N\) is the volume of the \(N\)-dimensional unit ball. Under the additional assumption \(\inf_\Omega f>0\) and \(\inf_\Omega g>0\), the authors are able to obtain the following upper estimate for \(\Gamma\) \[ \mathcal{O}_1\subset \Big(0, \frac{4\mu_1}{27\inf_\Omega f}\Big]\times \Big(0, \frac{4\mu_1}{27\inf_\Omega g}\Big], \] where \(\mu_1\) is the first eigenvalue of \((-\Delta, H_0^1(\Omega))\). Further results concern: -- The monotonicity of the minimal solution with respect to \(\Omega\). In particular, the authors prove that if \((S_{\lambda,\mu})\) admits a solution, then \((S_{\lambda,\mu})\) admits a solution for any subdomain \(\Omega'\subset \Omega\) for which the Green's function exists. Moreover, the corresponding minimal solutions \((u_\Omega,v_\Omega)\), \((u_{\Omega'},v_{\Omega'})\) satisfy \(u_\Omega(x)\geq u_{\Omega'}(x)\), \(v_\Omega(x)\geq v_{\Omega'}(x)\), for each \(x\in \Omega\). -- A comparison between the set \(\mathcal{O}_1\) and the analogous corresponding to the Schwartz symmetrizations \(f^\sharp,g^\sharp\) of \(f,g\) respectively. -- The regularity of the extremal solutions (i.e., the solutions corresponding to points of the critical curve \(\Gamma\)) in the case \(f=g=1\). It is proved that the extremal solution is smooth provided that \(N\leq 7\). The main ingredients of the proofs are: sub-super solutions method, Maximum principle, monotone approximations, \(L^p\)-estimates for semi-stable solutions.