On certain singular solutions of the partial differential equation \(u^ 2_ xu_{xx}+2u_ xu_ yu_{xy}+u^ 2_ yu_{yy}=0\) (Q801205)

The importance of the equation \(u^ 2_ xu_{xx}+2u_ xu_ yu_{xy}+u^ 2_ yu_{yy}=0\) follows from the fact that it may be regarded as a limit case of the p-harmonic equation as \(p\to \infty\), and is related to the problem of minimizing the \(L^{\infty}\)-norm of the gradient \(\nabla u\). The author deals with some non-classical (''singular'') solutions and using the polar coordinates r,\(\phi\) in a very nontrivial manner, he explicitly determines a very nice family of such singular solutions \(u=u_ m\) \((m=2,3,...)\) of class \(C^ 1({\mathbb{R}}^ 2)\). Note that they realize the above mentioned minimum, too, each solution \(u_ m\) is of class \(C^{\infty}\) in open sectors \(\phi \neq k\pi /m\) (k integer), and \(\text{grad} u_ m=0\) at the origin (in contrast to the classical solutions which have no stationary point).