Boundary Value Problems for Nonlinear Elliptic Equations in Divergence Form

Sammanfattning: The thesis consists of three papers focussing on the study of nonlinear elliptic partial differential equations in a nonempty open subset Ω of the n-dimensional Euclidean space Rn. We study the existence and uniqueness of the solutions, as well as their behaviour near the boundary of Ω. The behaviour of the solutions at infinity is also discussed when Ω is unbounded. In Paper A, we consider a mixed boundary value problem for the p-Laplace equation ∆pu := div(|∇u| p−2∇u) = 0 in an open infinite circular half-cylinder with prescribed Dirichlet boundary data on a part of the boundary and zero Neumann boundary data on the rest. By a suitable transformation of the independent variables, this mixed problem is transformed into a Dirichlet problem for a degenerate (weighted) elliptic equation on a bounded set. By analysing the transformed problem in weighted Sobolev spaces, it is possible to obtain the existence of continuous weak solutions to the mixed problem, both for Sobolev and for continuous data on the Dirichlet part of the boundary. A characterisation of the boundary regularity of the point at infinity is obtained in terms of a new variational capacity adapted to the cylinder. In Paper B, we study Perron solutions to the Dirichlet problem for the degenerate quasilinear elliptic equation div A(x, ∇u) = 0 in a bounded open subset of Rn. The vector-valued function A satisfies the standard ellipticity assumptions with a parameter 1 < p <∞ and a p-admissible weight w. For general boundary data, the Perron method produces a lower and an upper solution, and if they coincide then the boundary data are called resolutive. We show that arbitrary perturbations on sets of weighted p-capacity zero of continuous (and quasicontinuous Sobolev) boundary data f are resolutive, and that the Perron solutions for f and such perturbations coincide. As a consequence, it is also proved that the Perron solution with continuous boundary data is the unique bounded continuous weak solution that takes the required boundary data outside a set of weighted p-capacity zero. Some results in Paper C are a generalisation of those in Paper A, extended to quasilinear elliptic equations of the form div A(x, ∇u) = 0. Here, results from Paper B are used to prove the existence and uniqueness of continuous weak solutions to the mixed boundary value problem for continuous Dirichlet data. Regularity of the boundary point at infinity for the equation div A(x, ∇u) = 0 is characterised by a Wiener type criterion. We show that sets of Sobolev p-capacity zero are removable for the solutions and also discuss the behaviour of the solutions at ∞. In particular, a certain trichotomy is proved, similar to the Phragmén–Lindelöf principle.