A new proof of the boundedness results for stable solutions to semilinear elliptic equations

Abstract

We consider the class of stable solutions to semilinear equations $-\Delta u=f(u)$ in a bounded smooth domain of $\mathbb{R}^n$. Since 2010 an interior a priori $L^\infty$ bound for stable solutions is known to hold in dimensions $n \leq 4$ for all $C^1$ nonlinearities $f$. In the radial case, the same is true for $n \leq 9$. Here we provide with a new, simpler, and unified proof of these results. It establishes, in addition, some new estimates in higher dimensions ---for instance $L^p$ bounds for every finite~$p$ in dimension 5. Since the mid nineties, the existence of an $L^\infty$ bound holding for all $C^1$ nonlinearities when $5 \leq n \leq 9$ was a challenging open problem. This has been recently solved by A. Figalli, X. Ros-Oton, J. Serra, and the author, for nonnegative nonlinearities, in a forthcoming paper.