Quantization property of n-Laplacian mean field equation and sharp Moser-Onofri inequality

Abstract

In this paper, we are concerned with the following $n$-Laplacian mean field equation \[ \left\{ {\begin{array}{*{20}{c}} { - \Delta_n u = \lambda e^u} & {\rm in} \ \ \Omega, \\ {\ \ \ \ u = 0} &\ {\rm on}\ \partial \Omega, \end{array}} \right. \] \[\] where $\Omega$ is a smooth bounded domain of $\mathbb{R}^n \ (n\geq 2)$ and $- \Delta_n u =-{\rm div}(|\nabla u|^{n-2}\nabla u)$. We first establish the quantization property of solutions to the above $n$-Laplacian mean field equation. As an application, combining the Pohozaev identity and the capacity estimate, we obtain the sharp constant $C(n)$ of the Moser-Onofri inequality in the $n$-dimensional unit ball $B^n:=B^n(0,1)$, $$\mathop {\inf }\limits_{u \in W_0^{1,n}(B^n)}\frac{1}{ n C_n}\int_{B^n} | \nabla u|^n dx- \ln \int_{B^n} {e^u} dx\geq C(n),$$ which extends the result of Caglioti-Lions-Marchioro-Pulvirenti in \cite{Caglioti} to the case of $n$-dimensional ball. Here $C_n=(\frac{n^2}{n-1})^{n-1} \omega_{n-1}$ and $\omega_{n-1}$ is the surface measure of $B^n$. For the Moser-Onofri inequality in a general bounded domain of $\mathbb{R}^n$, we apply the technique of $n$-harmonic transplantation to give the optimal concentration level of the Moser-Onofri inequality and obtain the criterion for the existence and non-existence of extremals for the Moser-Onofri inequality.