Jiamin Zeng is currently a postgraduate student at Anhui University of Technology. His research mainly focuses on elliptic partial differential equations
Yi Fang is an Associate Professor at Anhui University of Technology. He received his Ph.D. degree from the University of Science and Technology of China in 2015. His research mainly focuses on elliptic partial differential equations
Some new types of mean value formulas for the polyharmonic functions were established. Based on the formulas, the Harnack inequality for the nonnegative solutions to the polyharmonic equations was proved.
Graphical Abstract
Harnack inequality.
Abstract
Some new types of mean value formulas for the polyharmonic functions were established. Based on the formulas, the Harnack inequality for the nonnegative solutions to the polyharmonic equations was proved.
Public Summary
Some new type mean value formulas for polyharmonic functions were established.
The Harnack inequality for polyharmonic functions was proved.
The Harnack estimates for the harmonic equation have been investigated profoundly[1, 2]. Let Ω⊂Rn(n⩾ be a connected domain. In 2006, Caristi and Mitidieri[3] considered the Harnack inequality for nonnegative solutions to the biharmonic equation
They used the mean value formulas for the biharmonic functions, which are the solutions to the biharmonic equations and the maximum principle, to prove the Harnack inequality. Motivated by the approaches and results in their work, we will consider the Harnack inequality for the nonnegative weak solutions to the k -harmonic (k\geqslant 3) equation
The function u that satisfies Eq. (2) is called k -harmonic or polyharmonic. We shall focus on the case k = 3 and prove the mean value formulas for the 3-harmonic function and for the general k -harmonic function cases by induction argument. Then, we will give the proof of the Harnack inequality for Eq. (2).
Theorem 1.1. Assume that u is a nonnegative weak solution of Eq. (2) such that -\Delta u\geqslant0 in \varOmega. Then there exists C = C(n)>0 , such that for any x\in\varOmega and each R satisfying 0 < 2R < {\rm dist}(x,\partial \varOmega) and B_{2R}(x)\subset\subset\varOmega, it holds that
Remark 1.1. The assumption -\Delta u\geqslant0 in \varOmega is necessary. Since if we let u(x) = x_1^2 for x = (x_1, \cdots, x_n)\in \mathbb{R}^n , then (-\Delta)^ku(x) = 0 for k\geqslant3, -\Delta u(x) = -2 < 0. However, for any R>0 , u does not satisfy the Harnack inequality in B_R(0) .
The remaining part of this paper is organized as follows: In Section 2, we figure out the mean value formulas for polyharmonic functions, and in Section 3, we give the proof of Theorem 1.1.
2.
The mean value formulas
In this section, we first prove the mean value formulas for 3-harmonic functions, and then extend the mean value formulas to the general polyharmonic function cases by the induction argument. The mean value formulas we consider here are different from those in Refs. [4, 5] and references therein.
Definition 2.1. For any x\in\mathbb{R}^n , r>0 , the spherical average of u is defined as
where \omega_n is the measure of the unit sphere \partial B_1(0) .
The following lemma was very useful in the study of higher-order conformally invariant elliptic equations[6]. For the convenience of the readers, we will give a proof.
Lemma 2.1. For any integer k\geqslant1, it holds that \Delta^k\bar u(r) = \overline{\Delta^k u}(r).
Proof. Since \bar u(r) is radially symmetric, it follows that
Therefore, for any integer k\geq1 , it can be easily concluded that \Delta^k \bar u(r) = \overline{\Delta^k u}(r) by induction.
Now, we give the proof of the mean value formula for 3-harmonic functions by the approach in Ref. [7].
Lemma 2.2. Assume that u is a weak solution to (-\Delta)^3u = 0 in \varOmega. For any x\in\varOmega, denoted by d_x = {\rm dist} (x,\partial\varOmega), then for any 0<R<d_x , the following mean value formula holds
Note that (-\Delta)^3u = 0 , so \Delta^2u is harmonic. By the mean value formula, we have \Delta^2u(x) = \overline{\Delta^2u}(r) for any 0<r<d_x . Then, it is easy to check that \dfrac{r^4}{8n(n+2)}\Delta^2u(x) is a special solution to Eq. (4). Therefore, the general solutions to Eq. (4) can be given by
By the similar arguments, generally, we can obtain the mean value formulas for k -harmonic functions.
Lemma 2.3. Assume that u is a weak solution to (-\Delta)^ku = 0 in \varOmega, k\geqslant3. For any x\in\varOmega, denoted by d_x = {\rm dist}(x,\partial\varOmega), then for any 0<R<d_x , the following mean value equality holds
where a(n,k) = \dfrac{\prod^{k-1}_{m = 1}(n+m)}{2^{k-1}\left[(k-1)!\right]^2} and b_i(k) = (-1)^iC^i_{k-1} \cdot \prod^{k-1}_{m = 1}(n+2m+i), i = 0,\cdots,k-1 . Then by direct calculation, we get
\frac{\partial}{\partial R}f(R,x) = 0
and
\lim_{R\to0}f(R,x) = u(x),
which finishes the proof.
3.
Proof of Theorem 1.1
Now, we can give the proof of Theorem 1.1.
Proof. On the one hand, for any x\in\varOmega, 0<2R< {\rm dist}(x,\partial\varOmega) , by Lemma 2.3 we have
The value of the above positive constants C(n,k) may vary in different places.
On the other hand, since u\geqslant0 and -\Delta u\geqslant0 in \varOmega, by the mean value inequality, for any x\in\varOmega, t>0 , if B_t(x)\subset\subset \varOmega, then
By Hopf’s lemma[1, 2], we have \inf\limits_{B_{R/2}(x)}u = \inf\limits_{\partial B_{R/2}(x)}u . Without loss of generality, we assume the minimum point x_0\in\partial B_{R/2}(x) , then u(x)\geqslant u(x_0). Obviously, B_{R/2}(x)\subset B_R(x)\subset B_{3R/2}(x_0)\subset\subset\varOmega, so we have
The authors are grateful to Dr. Bo Xia at the University of Science and Technology of China for useful discussions and comments on this work. This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (11801006, 12071489).
Conflict of interest
The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
Some new type mean value formulas for polyharmonic functions were established.
The Harnack inequality for polyharmonic functions was proved.
Han Q, Lin F. Elliptic Partial Differential Equations. 2nd edition. Providence, RI: American Mathematical Society, 2011.
[2]
Gilbarg D, Trudinger N. Elliptic Partial Differential Equations of Second Order. Berlin: Springer Verlag, 1983.
[3]
Caristi G, Mitidieri E. Harnack inequality and applications to solutions of biharmonic equations. In: Partial Differential Equations and Functional Analysis. Basel, Switzerland: Birkhäuser Verlag, 2006.
[4]
Karachik V V. On the mean value property for polyharmonic functions in the ball. Siberian Advances in Mathematics,2014, 24 (3): 169–182. DOI: 10.3103/S1055134414030031
[5]
Łysik G. On the mean value property for polyharmonic functions. Acta Math. Hung.,2011, 133: 133–139. DOI: 10.1007/s10474-011-0138-7
[6]
Wei J, Xu X. Classification of solutions of higher order conformally invariant equations. Math. Ann.,1999, 313: 207–228. DOI: 10.1007/s002080050258
[7]
Simader C G. Mean value formulas, Weyl’s lemma and Liouville theorems for δ2 and Stokes’ system. Results in Mathematics,1992, 22: 761–780. DOI: 10.1007/BF03323122
Du, Z., Feng, Z., Li, Y. Classification of Solutions to Several Semi-linear Polyharmonic Equations and Fractional Equations. Journal of Geometric Analysis, 2024, 34(3): 87.
DOI:10.1007/s12220-023-01543-z
Han Q, Lin F. Elliptic Partial Differential Equations. 2nd edition. Providence, RI: American Mathematical Society, 2011.
[2]
Gilbarg D, Trudinger N. Elliptic Partial Differential Equations of Second Order. Berlin: Springer Verlag, 1983.
[3]
Caristi G, Mitidieri E. Harnack inequality and applications to solutions of biharmonic equations. In: Partial Differential Equations and Functional Analysis. Basel, Switzerland: Birkhäuser Verlag, 2006.
[4]
Karachik V V. On the mean value property for polyharmonic functions in the ball. Siberian Advances in Mathematics,2014, 24 (3): 169–182. DOI: 10.3103/S1055134414030031
[5]
Łysik G. On the mean value property for polyharmonic functions. Acta Math. Hung.,2011, 133: 133–139. DOI: 10.1007/s10474-011-0138-7
[6]
Wei J, Xu X. Classification of solutions of higher order conformally invariant equations. Math. Ann.,1999, 313: 207–228. DOI: 10.1007/s002080050258
[7]
Simader C G. Mean value formulas, Weyl’s lemma and Liouville theorems for δ2 and Stokes’ system. Results in Mathematics,1992, 22: 761–780. DOI: 10.1007/BF03323122
Du, Z., Feng, Z., Li, Y. Classification of Solutions to Several Semi-linear Polyharmonic Equations and Fractional Equations. Journal of Geometric Analysis, 2024, 34(3): 87.
DOI:10.1007/s12220-023-01543-z