Strong Maximum Principle for Viscosity Solutions of Fully Nonlinear Cooperative Elliptic Systems

In this paper, we consider the validity of the strong maximum principle for weakly coupled, degenerate and cooperative elliptic systems in a bounded domain. In particular, we are interested in the viscosity solutions of elliptic systems with fully nonlinear degenerated principal symbol. Applying the method of viscosity solutions, introduced by Crandall, Ishii and Lions in 1992, we prove the validity of strong interior and boundary maximum principle for semi-continuous viscosity sub- and super-solutions of such nonlinear systems. For the first time in the literature, the strong maximum principle is considered for viscosity solutions to nonlinear elliptic systems. As a consequence of the strong interior maximum principle, we derive comparison principle for viscosity sub- and super-solutions in case when on of them is a classical one. The main novelty of this work is the reduction of the smoothness of the solution. In the literature the strong maximum principle is proved for classical C2 or generalized C1 solutions, while we prove it for semi-continuous ones.

A pointwise differential inequality and second-order regularity for nonlinear elliptic systems

A sharp pointwise differential inequality for vectorial second-order partial differential operators, with Uhlenbeck structure, is offered. As a consequence, optimal second-order regularity properties of solutions to nonlinear elliptic systems in domains in $${\mathbb R^n}$$ R n are derived. Both local and global estimates are established. Minimal assumptions on the boundary of the domain are required for the latter. In the special case of the p-Laplace system, our conclusions broaden the range of the admissible values of the exponent p previously known.

The interplay between two Euler–Lagrange operators relating to the nonlinear elliptic system $$\Sigma [(u, {\mathscr {P}}), \varOmega ]$$

We establish the existence of multiple whirling solutions to a class of nonlinear elliptic systems in variational form subject to pointwise gradient constraint and pure Dirichlet type boundary conditions. A reduced system for certain $$\mathbf{SO}(n)$$ SO ( n ) -valued matrix fields, a description of its solutions via Lie exponentials, a structure theorem for multi-dimensional curl free vector fields and a remarkable explicit relation between two Euler–Lagrange operators of constrained and unconstrained types are the underlying tools and ideas in proving the main result.

Geometrically distinct solutions of nonlinear elliptic systems with periodic potentials

In this paper, we study the following nonlinear elliptic systems: $$\begin{aligned} {\left\{ \begin{array}{ll} -\Delta u_1+V_1(x)u_1=\partial _{u_1}F(x,u)&{}\quad x\in {\mathbb {R}}^N,\\ -\Delta u_2+V_2(x)u_2=\partial _{u_2}F(x,u)&{}\quad x\in {\mathbb {R}}^N, \end{array}\right. } \end{aligned}$$ - Δ u 1 + V 1 ( x ) u 1 = ∂ u 1 F ( x , u ) x ∈ R N , - Δ u 2 + V 2 ( x ) u 2 = ∂ u 2 F ( x , u ) x ∈ R N , where $$u=(u_1,u_2):{\mathbb {R}}^N\rightarrow {\mathbb {R}}^2$$ u = ( u 1 , u 2 ) : R N → R 2 , F and $$V_i$$ V i are periodic in $$x_1,\ldots ,x_N$$ x 1 , … , x N and $$0\notin \sigma (-\,\Delta +V_i)$$ 0 ∉ σ ( - Δ + V i ) for $$i=1,2$$ i = 1 , 2 , where $$\sigma (-\,\Delta +V_i)$$ σ ( - Δ + V i ) stands for the spectrum of the Schrödinger operator $$-\,\Delta +V_i$$ - Δ + V i . Under some suitable assumptions on F and $$V_i$$ V i , we obtain the existence of infinitely many geometrically distinct solutions. The result presented in this paper generalizes the result in Szulkin and Weth (J Funct Anal 257(12):3802–3822, 2009).