The Dirichlet problem of the homogeneous $k$-Hessian equation in a punctured domain

Abstract

In this paper, we consider the Dirichlet problem for the homogeneous $k$-Hessian equation with prescribed asymptotic behavior at $0\in\Omega$ where $\Omega$ is a $(k-1)$-convex bounded domain in the Euclidean space. The prescribed asymptotic behavior at $0$ of the solution is zero if $k>\frac{n}{2}$, it is $\log|x|+O(1)$ if $k=\frac{n}{2}$ and $-|x|^{\frac{2k-n}{n}}+O(1)$ if $k<\frac{n}{2}$. To solve this problem, we consider the Dirichlet problem of the approximating $k$-Hessian equation in $\Omega\setminus \overline{B_r(0)}$ with $r$ small. We firstly construct the subsolution of the approximating $k$-Hessian equation. Then we derive the pointwise $C^{2}$-estimates of the approximating equation based on new gradient and second order estimates established previously by the second author and the third author. In addition, we prove a uniform positive lower bound of the gradient if the domain is starshaped with respect to $0$. As an application, we prove an identity along the level set of the approximating solution and obtain a nearly monotonicity formula. In particular, we get a weighted geometric inequality for smoothly and strictly $(k-1)$-convex starshaped closed hypersurface in $\mathbb R^n$ with $\frac{n}{2}\le k<n$.