On the critical dimension of a fourth order elliptic problem with negative exponent
Abstract
Description
We study the regularity of the extremal solution of the semilinear biharmonic equation $βΔ^2 u-τΔu=\fracλ{(1-u)^2}$ on a ball $B \subset \R^N$, under Navier boundary conditions $u=Δu=0$ on $\partial B$, where $λ>0$ is a parameter, while $τ>0$, $β>0$ are fixed constants. It is known that there exists a $λ^{*}$ such that for $λ>λ^{*}$ there is no solution while for $λ<λ^{*}$ there is a branch of minimal solutions. Our main result asserts that the extremal solution $u^{*}$ is regular ($\sup_{B}u^{*}<1$) for $N\leq 8$ and $β, τ>0$ and it is singular ($\sup_{B}u^{*}=1$) for $N\geq 9$, $β>0$, and $τ>0$ with $\fracτβ$ small. Our proof for the singularity of extremal solutions in dimensions $N\geq 9$ is based on certain improved Hardy-Rellich inequalities.