Qualitative analysis of rupture solutions for a MEMS problem (Q899245)

This paper concerns the Hölder continuity and the Hausdorff dimension of rupture sets of sequences of solutions to the equation \[ -\Delta u=u^{-p}\tag{1} \] in bounded domain of \(\mathbb{R}^n\), where \(p>1\). For solutions \(u\) to equation (1), the rupture set is the set \(\{u=0\}\), whose points are singularities in the equation. The first main result states that if \(\{u_i\}\) is a sequence of positive smooth solutions to equation (1) in \(B_2(0)\) which satisfy the condition \[ \sup_{i\in \mathbb{N}}\int_{B_2(0)}\left(|\nabla u_i|^2+u_i^{1-p}+u_i^2\right)dx<+\infty, \] then the functions \(u_i\) are uniformly bounded in \(C^{\frac{2}{p+1}}(\overline{B_1(0)})\) and there exists a stationary solution \(u_\infty\) to equation \((1)\) such that \(\{u_i\}\) converges to \(u_\infty\) uniformly in \(B_1(0)\), strongly in \(H^1(B_1(0))\), and in the \(C^k\) norm outside the set \(\{u_\infty=0\}\), for any \(k\in \mathbb{N}\). Moreover, \(u_i^{-p}\) converges to \(u_\infty^{-p}\) strongly in \(L^1(B_1(0))\). The second main result states that if \(u\) is a \(C^{\frac{2}{p+1}}\)-continuous stationary solution to the equation (1), then the Hausdorff dimension of the set \(\{u=0\}\) is no more than \(n-2\), and \(\{u=0\}\) is a discrete set when \(n=2\). As a consequence of these two results, the authors derive the existence of a positive number \(\lambda^*\) such that the problem \[ -\Delta u=\lambda^*u^{-p} \text{ in }\Omega, \quad u=1 \text{ on }\partial \Omega, \] where \(\Omega\) is a convex domain in \(\mathbb{R}^2\), admits a Hölder continuous weak solution whose rupture set consists of a finite number of points. The proof of the uniform Hölder estimate of the sequence \(\{u_i\}\) makes use of a Liouville type theorem obtained in [\textit{B. Noris} et al., Commun. Pure Appl. Math. 63, No. 3, 267--302 (2010; Zbl 1189.35314)]. The Federer dimension reduction principle and the monotonicity formula for stationary solutions are the key tools to obtain the estimate of the Hausdorff dimension of the set \(\{u=0\}\), for \(C^{\frac{2}{p+1}}\)-continuous stationary solutions \(u\) to the equation (1).