Uniqueness result on nonnegative solutions of a large class of differential inequalities on Riemannian manifolds (Q901327)

This paper deals with a large class of differential inequalities \[ \text{div}(A(x,u,\nabla u))+ V(x)u^\sigma\leq 0\tag{1} \] on a connected geodesically complete non-compact \(N\)-dimensional Riemannian manifold \(M^N\), \(N\geq 2\). Let the symbol \(\mu\) stands for the Riemannian measure, \(B(x,r)\) is the geodesic ball of radius \(r\) centered at \(x\), \(r= \text{dist}(x,x_0)\), \(B_r= B(x_0,r)\) and \(x_0\) is a reference on \(M\). At first, the author defines the class \(A(m)\), \(m\geq 1\) to whom \(A(x,\xi,\eta)\) belongs and weak nonnegative solution \(u\in W^{1,m}_{\text{loc}}(M^N)\) of (1). As the function \(V\) is positive and \(V\in L^\infty_{\text{loc}}\) one introduces a new measure \(\nu\), defined by \(d\nu=V^{-{m-1\over\sigma-m+1}} d\mu\), \(1<m<\sigma+1\). Moreover, it is assumed that for some \(\delta_1,\delta_2\geq 0\) the estimate \(cr^{-\Delta_1}\leq V(x)\leq Cr^{-\delta_2}\) holds for \(r\gg 1\). The main result: Theorem 1.3 claims that under the above-mentioned conditions and if the inequality \[ \nu(B_r\setminus\overline B_1)\leq Cr^p\ln^qr\tag{2} \] is verified for all \(r\) large enough, then the only nonnegative solution of (1) is identically zero. In (2) \(p= p(m,\sigma)> 0\), \(q= q(m,\sigma)\) are explicitly written constants. In many specific cases of \(p\), \(q\), (2) is sharp.