On the Dirichlet and Serrin problems for the inhomogeneous infinity Laplacian in convex domains: Regularity and geometric results

TL;DR

This paper studies the regularity and geometric properties of solutions to the inhomogeneous infinity Laplacian in convex domains, proving power-concavity, class $C^1$ regularity, and characterizing domains where Serrin-type overdetermined problems admit solutions.

Contribution

It establishes the power-concavity and $C^1$ regularity of solutions, and characterizes convex domains where Serrin-type problems have solutions, linking geometry to PDE properties.

Findings

Solution is 3/4 power-concave and $C^1$ in convex domains.

Existence of solutions implies the domain's high ridge and cut locus coincide.

In 2D, solutions exist only in stadium-like or ball domains.

Abstract

Given an open bounded subset $\Omega$ of $\mathbb{R}^n$, which is convex and satisfies an interior sphere condition, we consider the pde $-\Delta_{\infty} u = 1$ in $\Omega$, subject to the homogeneous boundary condition $u = 0$ on $\partial \Omega$. We prove that the unique solution to this Dirichlet problem is power-concave (precisely, 3/4 concave) and it is of class $C ^1(\Omega)$. We then investigate the overdetermined Serrin-type problem obtained by adding the extra boundary condition $|\nabla u| = a$ on $\partial \Omega$; by using a suitable $P$-function we prove that, if $\Omega$ satisfies the same assumptions as above and in addition contains a ball with touches $\partial \Omega$ at two diametral points, then the existence of a solution to this Serrin-type problem implies that necessarily the cut locus and the high ridge of $\Omega$ coincide. In turn, in dimension $n=2$, this entails that $\Omega$ must be a stadium-like domain, and in particular it must be a ball in case its boundary is of class $C^2$.