Asymptotic behavior of the least-energy solutions of a semilinear elliptic equation with the Hardy-Sobolev critical exponent (Q729980)

The author considers the Neumann problem \[ (P_\lambda)\quad -\Delta u+\lambda u= \frac{u^{2^*(s)-1}}{|x|^s}\text{ in }\Omega,\quad u>0\text{ in }\Omega,\quad \frac{\partial u}{\partial \nu}=0\text{ on }\partial \Omega, \] where \(\Omega\) is a bounded smooth domain in \(\mathbb{R}^N\) \((N\geq 3)\), with \(0\in \partial \Omega\), \(\lambda\) is a positive parameter, \(s\in (0,2)\) and \(2^*(s):=2\frac{N-s}{N-2}\) is the Hardy-Sobolev critical exponent. Results about the existence, the nonexistence and the asymptotic behavior as \(\lambda \rightarrow \infty\) of least energy solutions to problem \((P_\lambda)\) are established. In particular, the author proves that if a least energy solution \(v_\lambda\) to \((P_\lambda)\) exists and \(x_\lambda\in \overline{\Omega}\) is a global maximum point of \(v_\lambda\), then, as \(\lambda\rightarrow \infty\), \(v_\lambda(x)\rightarrow 0\), for each \(x\in \Omega\), \(\lambda^{-1} \|v_\lambda\|_\infty^{\frac{4}{N-2}}\rightarrow \infty\), and \(|x_\lambda|\cdot \|v_\lambda\|_\infty^{\frac{2}{N-2}}\rightarrow 0\). Moreover, for any \(\delta>0\), the author provides an upper bound for \(v_\lambda\) in \(\Omega \setminus B_\delta(0)\), and proves that, for large \(\lambda\), the solution \(v_\lambda\), normalized with respect to the \(L^\infty\)-norm, can be approximated in \(\Omega \cap B_r(0)\), with \(r=\delta\|v_\lambda\|_\infty^{\frac{2}{N-2}}\), by a minimizer for the best constant of the Hardy-Sobolev inequality in \(\mathbb{R}^N\) composed with a certain diffeomorphism depending on the geometric properties of \(\partial \Omega\) near 0. Main ingredients of the proof are a lower positive bound for \(\lambda^{-1}\|v_\lambda\|_\infty^{\frac{4}{N-2}}\), which allows to deduce the boundedness of \(|x_\lambda|\cdot\|v_\lambda\|_\infty^{-\frac{2}{N-2}}\), a Pohozaev type-identity for the equation \(\Delta u=f(x,u)\) in \(\mathbb{R}^N\), and certain properties of the best constant for the Hardy-Sobolev inequality in \(\Omega\) \[ \mu_{s,\lambda}^N(\Omega):=\inf\Biggl\{\int_\Omega (|\nabla u|^2+\lambda |u|^2)dx: \;u\in H^1(\Omega), \quad \int_\Omega |x|^{-s}u^{2^*(s)}dx=1\Biggr\}. \] For \(N\geq 5\), the behavior of \(\mu_{s,\lambda}^N(\Omega)\) as \(\lambda\rightarrow \infty\) is also investigated and, as a consequence of the obtained result, the author proves that if the mean curvature at \(0\) is nonpositive, then there exists \(\lambda_*=\lambda_*(\Omega)>0\) such that \(\mu_{s,\lambda}^N(\Omega)\) is attained for \(0<\lambda<\lambda_*\), and \(\mu_{s,\lambda}^N(\Omega)\) is not attained for \(\lambda>\lambda_*\). As a last result, the author proves that the minimizer for \(\mu_{s,\lambda}^N(\Omega)\) is unique for \(\lambda\) small enough.