We examine the regularity of the extremal solution of the nonlinear eigenvalue problem

on a general bounded domain Ω in ℝN, with Navier boundary condition u = Δu on ∂Ω. Firstly, we prove the extremal solution is smooth for any p > 1 and N ⩽ 4, which improves the result of Guo and Wei (Discrete Contin. Dynam. Syst. A 34 (2014), 2561–2580). Secondly, if p = 3, N = 3, we prove that any radial weak solution of this nonlinear eigenvalue problem is smooth in the case Ω = 𝔹, which completes the result of Dávila et al. (Math. Annalen348 (2009), 143–193). Finally, we also consider the stability of the entire solution of Δ2u = –l/up in ℝN with u > 0.

We are interested in entire solutions for the semilinear biharmonic equation Δ2 u = f(u) in ℝN , where f(u) = eu or –u –p (p > 0). For the exponential case, we prove that for the polyharmonic problem Δ2m u = eu with positive integer m, any classical entire solution verifies Δ2m–1 u < 0; this completes the results of Dupaigne et al. (Arch. Ration. Mech. Analysis208 (2013), 725–752) and Wei and Xu (Math. Annalen313 (1999), 207–228). We also obtain a refined asymptotic expansion of the radial separatrix solution to Δ2 u = eu in ℝ3, which answers a question posed by Berchio et al. (J. Diff. Eqns252 (2012), 2569–2616). For the negative power case, we show the non-existence of the classical entire solution for any 0 < p ⩽ 1.

In this paper, the modified collocation Trefftz method (MCTM) and the exponentially convergent scalar homotopy algorithm (ECSHA) are adopted to analyze the inverse boundary determination problem governed by the biharmonic equation. The position for part of the boundary with given boundary condition is unknown and the position for the rest of the boundary with overspecified Cauchy boundary conditions is given a priori. Since the spatial position for portion of boundary is not given a priori, it is extremely difficult to solve such a boundary determination problem by any numerical scheme. In order to stably solve the boundary determination problem, the MCTM will be adopted in this study owing to that it can avoid the generation of mesh grid and numerical integration. When this problem is modeled by MCTM, a system of nonlinear algebraic equations will be formed and then be solved by ECSHA. Some numerical examples will be provided to demonstrate the ability and accuracy of the proposed scheme. In addition, the stability of the proposed meshless method will be tested by adding some noise into the prescribed boundary conditions and then to see how does that affect the numerical results.


A new finite element, which is continuously differentiable, but only piecewise quadratic polynomials on a type of uniform triangulations, is introduced. We construct a local basis which does not involve nodal values nor derivatives. Different from the traditional finite elements, we have to construct a special, averaging operator which is stable and preserves quadratic polynomials. We show the optimal order of approximation of the finite element in interpolation, and in solving the biharmonic equation. Numerical results are provided confirming the analysis.