On the critical points of solutions of Robin boundary problems

TL;DR

This paper proves the uniqueness of the critical point for stable solutions of Robin boundary problems in convex domains with positive curvature, but shows this uniqueness fails in non-convex domains when 3 is large.

Contribution

It establishes the conditions under which the critical point is unique for Robin problems and demonstrates the failure of this uniqueness in non-convex domains for large 3.

Findings

Unique critical point for stable solutions in convex domains with positive curvature.

Failure of critical point uniqueness in non-convex domains when 3 is large.

Existence of solutions with arbitrarily many critical points in non-convex domains.

Abstract

In this paper we prove the uniqueness of the critical point for stable solutions of the Robin problem \[ \begin{cases} -\Delta u=f(u)&\text{in }\Omega\\ u>0&\text{in }\Omega\\ \partial_\nu u+\beta u=0&\text{on }\partial\Omega, \end{cases} \] where $\Omega\subseteq\mathbb{R}^2$ is a smooth and bounded domain with strictly positive curvature of the boundary, $f\ge0$ is a smooth function and $\beta>0$. Moreover, for $\beta$ large the result fails as soon as the domain is no more convex, even if it is very close to be: indeed, in this case it is possible to find solutions with an arbitrary large number of critical points.