Uniqueness of positive radial solutions of u+f(u)=0 in R^ n

Geometric theory, characteristics, transformations in context of PDEs (35A30) Oscillation, zeros of solutions, mean value theorems, etc. in context of PDEs (35B05) Smoothness and regularity of solutions to PDEs (35B65) Nonlinear boundary value problems for linear elliptic equations (35J65)

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\textit{B. Gidas}, \textit{W. M. Ni} and \textit{L. Nirenberg} [Commun. Math. Phys. 68, 209-243 (1979; Zbl 0425.35020)] in the study of positive classical solutions of the problem \[ (1)\quad \Delta u+f(u)=0\quad in\quad R^ n;\quad u(x)\to 0\quad as\quad | x| \to +\infty \] proved that any positive solution of (1) must be radial with respect to some origin of coordinates, at least if f is of class \(C^{1+\lambda}\) on some interval \([0,\gamma),\gamma >0\). Therefore, solutions of (1) can be seen as solutions of the problem \[ u(r)+((n- 1)/r)u'(r)+f(u(r))=0,\quad r>0 \] \[ u'(0)=0,\quad u(r)\to 0\quad as\quad r\to +\infty,\quad u(r)>0\quad for\quad r\geq 0 \] where r is the radial variable and n the dimension. In the present paper the authors study the uniqueness of smooth solutions \((u\in C^ 1[0,+\infty)\cap C^ 2(0,+\infty))\) under the following assumptions on f: (i) \(f\in C^ 1[0,+\infty)\); \(f(0)=0\), \(f'(0)=-m<0\). (ii) There exists a constant \(\alpha >0\) such that \(f(u)<0\) for \(u\in (0,\alpha)\), \(f(u)>0\) for \(u\in (\alpha,+\infty)\). (iii) \(f'(\alpha)>0.\) Moreover, some examples are discussed in detail. Their methods apply also to the study of positive radial solutions of the Dirichlet problem \[ \Delta u+f(u)=0\quad in\quad B(0,R);\quad u=0\quad on\quad \partial B(0,R) \] and the exterior Neumann problem \(\Delta u+f(u)=0\) in \(| x| >R\); \(\partial u/\partial n=0\), \(| x| =R\), \(u\to 0\) as \(| x| \to +\infty\).

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