Singularities of the divergence of continuous vector fields and uniform Hausdorff estimates

We prove that every closed set which is not sigma-finite with respect to the Hausdorff measure H^{N-1} carries singularities of continuous vector fields in the Euclidean space R^N for the divergence operator. We also show that finite measures which do not charge sets of sigma-finite Hausdorff measure H^{N-1} can be written as an L^1 perturbation of the divergence of a continuous vector field. The main tool is a property of approximation of measures in terms of the Hausdorff content

Flat solutions of the 1-Laplacian equation

For every $f \in L^N(\Omega)$ defined in an open bounded subset $\Omega$ of $\mathbb{R}^N$, we prove that a solution $u \in W_0^{1, 1}(\Omega)$ of the $1$-Laplacian equation ${-}\mathrm{div}{(\frac{\nabla u}{|\nabla u|})} = f$ in $\Omega$ satisfies $\nabla u = 0$ on a set of positive Lebesgue measure. The same property holds if $f \not\in L^N(\Omega)$ has small norm in the Marcinkiewicz space of weak-$L^{N}$ functions or if $u$ is a BV minimizer of the associated energy functional. The proofs rely on Stampacchia's truncation method.Comment: Dedicated to Jean Mawhin. Revised and extended version of a note written by the authors in 201

Strong maximum principle for Schr\"odinger operators with singular potential

We prove that for every $p > 1$ and for every potential $V \in L^p$, any nonnegative function satisfying $-\Delta u + V u \ge 0$ in an open connected set of $\mathbb{R}^N$ is either identically zero or its level set $\{u = 0\}$ has zero $W^{2, p}$ capacity. This gives an affirmative answer to an open problem of B\'enilan and Brezis concerning a bridge between Serrin-Stampacchia's strong maximum principle for $p > \frac{N}{2}$ and Ancona's strong maximum principle for $p = 1$. The proof is based on the construction of suitable test functions depending on the level set $\{u = 0\}$ and on the existence of solutions of the Dirichlet problem for the Schr\"odinger operator with diffuse measure data.Comment: 21 page

Schroedinger operators involving singular potentials and measure data

We study the existence of solutions of the Dirichlet problem for the Schroedinger operator with measure data $$\left\{ \begin{alignedat}{2} -\Delta u + Vu & = \mu && \quad \text{in } \Omega,\\ u & = 0 && \quad \text{on } \partial \Omega. \end{alignedat} \right.$$ We characterize the finite measures $\mu$ for which this problem has a solution for every nonnegative potential $V$ in the Lebesgue space $L^p(\Omega)$ with $1 \le p \le N/2$. The full answer can be expressed in terms of the $W^{2,p}$ capacity for $p > 1$, and the $W^{1,2}$ (or Newtonian) capacity for $p = 1$. We then prove the existence of a solution of the problem above when $V$ belongs to the real Hardy space $H^1(\Omega)$ and $\mu$ is diffuse with respect to the $W^{2,1}$ capacity.Comment: Fixed a display problem in arxiv's abstract. Original tex file unchange

A note on the fractional perimeter and interpolation

We present the fractional perimeter as a set-function interpolation between the Lebesgue measure and the perimeter in the sense of De Giorgi. Our motivation comes from a new fractional Boxing inequality that relates the fractional perimeter and the Hausdorff content and implies several known inequalities involving the Gagliardo seminorm of the Sobolev spaces $W^{\alpha, 1}$ of order $0 < \alpha < 1$

Limit solutions of the Chern-Simons equation

We investigate the scalar Chern-Simons equation $-\Delta u + e^u(e^u-1) = \mu$ in cases where there is no solution for a given nonnegative finite measure $\mu$. Approximating $\mu$ by a sequence of nonnegative $L^1$ functions or finite measures for which this equation has a solution, we show that the sequence of solutions of the Dirichlet problem converges to the solution with largest possible datum \mu^# \le \mu and we derive an explicit formula of \mu^# in terms of $\mu$. The counterpart for the Chern-Simons system with datum $(\mu, \nu)$ behaves differently and the conclusion depends on how much the measures $\mu$ and $\nu$ charge singletons

Strong density for higher order Sobolev spaces into compact manifolds

Given a compact manifold $N^n$, an integer $k \in \mathbb{N}_*$ and an exponent $1 \le p < \infty$, we prove that the class $C^\infty(\overline{Q}^m; N^n)$ of smooth maps on the cube with values into $N^n$ is dense with respect to the strong topology in the Sobolev space $W^{k, p}(Q^m; N^n)$ when the homotopy group $\pi_{\lfloor kp \rfloor}(N^n)$ of order $\lfloor kp \rfloor$ is trivial. We also prove the density of maps that are smooth except for a set of dimension $m - \lfloor kp \rfloor - 1$, without any restriction on the homotopy group of $N^n

The role of interplay between coefficients in the GG-convergence of some elliptic equations

We study the behavior of the solutions $u$ of the linear Dirichlet problems $- \mathrm{div} (M(x) \nabla u) + a(x) u = f(x)$ with respect to perturbations of the matrix $M(x)$ (with respect to the $G$-convergence) and with respect to perturbations of the nonnegative coefficient $a(x)$ and of the right hand side $f(x)$ satisfying the condition $|f (x)| \leq Q \, a (x)$