Geometric approach to nonvariational singular elliptic equations

In this work we develop a systematic geometric approach to study fully nonlinear elliptic equations with singular absorption terms as well as their related free boundary problems. The magnitude of the singularity is measured by a negative parameter $(\gamma -1)$, for $0 < \gamma < 1$, which reflects on lack of smoothness for an existing solution along the singular interface between its positive and zero phases. We establish existence as well sharp regularity properties of solutions. We further prove that minimal solutions are non-degenerate and obtain fine geometric-measure properties of the free boundary $\mathfrak{F} = \partial \{u > 0 \}$. In particular we show sharp Hausdorff estimates which imply local finiteness of the perimeter of the region $\{u > 0 \}$ and $\mathcal{H}^{n-1}$ a.e. weak differentiability property of $\mathfrak{F}$.Comment: Paper from D. Araujo's Ph.D. thesis, distinguished at the 2013 Carlos Gutierrez prize for best thesis, Archive for Rational Mechanics and Analysis 201

Remarks on regularity for pp-Laplacian type equations in non-divergence form

We study a singular or degenerate equation in non-divergence form modeled by the $p$-Laplacian, $$-|Du|^\gamma\left(\Delta u+(p-2)\Delta_\infty^N u\right)=f\ \ \ \ \text{in}\ \ \ \Omega.$$ We investigate local $C^{1,\alpha}$ regularity of viscosity solutions in the full range $\gamma>-1$ and $p>1$, and provide local $W^{2,2}$ estimates in the restricted cases where $p$ is close to 2 and $\gamma$ is close to 0.Comment: 38 page

Shooting with degree theory: Analysis of some weighted poly-harmonic systems

In this paper, the author establishes the existence of positive entire solutions to a general class of semilinear poly-harmonic systems, which includes equations and systems of the weighted Hardy--Littlewood--Sobolev type. The novel method used implements the classical shooting method enhanced by topological degree theory. The key steps of the method are to first construct a target map which aims the shooting method and the non-degeneracy conditions guarantee the continuity of this map. With the continuity of the target map, a topological argument is used to show the existence of zeros of the target map. The existence of zeros of the map along with a non-existence theorem for the corresponding Navier boundary value problem imply the existence of positive solutions for the class of poly-harmonic systems.Comment: 19 pages, author's accepted version including corrections to a few typographical error