Positive radial ground states for nonlinear biharmonic equations: maximum principles and expanding-domain approximation

Abstract

We prove the existence of nonnegative radial ground states for a class of nonlinear biharmonic equations in $\mathbb R^N$, covering subcritical and critical nonlinearities. The solutions are obtained as limits of clamped ground states on expanding balls. The Cassani-Tarsia homogeneous maximum principle in [D. Cassani. A. Tarsia, Adv. Nonlinear Anal. 11 (2022)] makes the approximating states positive. A variational decomposition on the radial Nehari manifold then excludes every zero sphere of positive radius, so the limiting ground state is positive on $\mathbb R^N\setminus\{0\}$. When the fourth order operator factorises into two second-order operators with positive resolvents, the conclusion upgrades to $u>0$ throughout $\mathbb R^N$, including at the origin. We also give an explicit counterexample showing that the tempting extension of the homogeneous maximum principle to super-solutions with arbitrary nonhomogeneous boundary data is false, even with an arbitrarily large positive zeroth-order coefficient.