Best constants in Sobolev inequalities on manifolds with boundary in the presence of symmetries and applications (Q950540)

Let \((M, g)\) be a compact \(n\)-dimensional Riemannian manifold with boundary, \(n\geq 3\), \(G\)-invariant under the action of a subgroup \(G\) of the isometry group of \((M, g)\). Assume that \((M, g)\) is a smooth bounded open subset of a slightly larger Riemannian manifold \((\widetilde{M}, g)\) [see \textit{Y. Y. Li} and \textit{M. Zhu}, Geom. Funct. Anal. 8, No. 1, 59--87 (1998; Zbl 0901.58066)], invariant under the action of a subgroup \(G\) of the isometry group of \((\widetilde{M}, g)\). Let \(k\) denote the minimum orbit dimension of \(G\) and let \(V\) denote the minimum of the volume of the \(k\)-dimensional orbits. Let \(p \in (1, n-k)\) and \(\tilde{q} = \frac{(n-k-1)p}{n-k-p}\). The authors prove that for all \(\varepsilon > 0\) there exist positive constants \(B_{\varepsilon}\) and \(\widetilde{B}_{\varepsilon}\) depending on \(p, G\) and the geometry of \((M, g)\), such that for all \(u\in H^p_{1,G} (M)\) the inequalities \[ \|u\|^p_{L^q_G (M)} \leq (2^{\frac{p}{n-k}} K^p_G + \varepsilon ) \| \nabla u\|^p_{L^p_G (M)} + B_{\varepsilon} \|u\|^p_{L^p_G (M)} \] and \[ \|u\|^p_{L^{\tilde{q}}_G (\partial M)} \leq (\widetilde{K}^p_G + \varepsilon ) \| \nabla u\|^p_{L^p_G (M)} + \widetilde{B}_{\varepsilon} \|u\|^p_{L^p_G ( \partial M)} \] hold, where \(K_G = \frac{K(n-k, p)}{V^{\frac{1}{n-k}}}\) and \(\widetilde{K}_G = \frac{\widetilde{K}(n-k, p)}{V^{\frac{p-1}{(n-k-1)p}}}\). Furthermore, the constants \(2^{\frac{1}{n-k}} K_G\) and \(\widetilde{K}_G\) are the best constants for these inequalities (see [\textit{R. J. Biezuner}, Nonlinear Anal., Theory Methods Appl. 54, No. 3, 575--589 (2003; Zbl 1023.58008)] for notations). The authors apply the result to solve nonlinear, elliptic, type Dirichlet and Neumann, PDEs of upper critical Sobolev exponent.