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This article studies the canonical Hilbert energy $H^{s/2}(M)$ on a Riemannian manifold for $s\in(0,2)$, with particular focus on the case of closed manifolds. Several equivalent definitions for this energy and the fractional Laplacian on a manifold are given, and they are shown to be identical up to explicit multiplicative constants. Moreover, the precise behavior of the kernel associated with the singular integral definition of the fractional Laplacian is obtained through an in-depth study of the heat kernel on a Riemannian manifold. Furthermore, a monotonicity formula for stationary points of functionals of the type $$ \mathcal E(v)=[v]^2_{H^{s/2}(M)}+\int_M F(v) \, dV \,, \,\,\, F \ge 0 \,, $$ is given, which includes, in particular, the case of nonlocal $s$-minimal surfaces. Finally, we prove some estimates for the Caffarelli-Silvestre extension problem, which are of general interest. This work is motivated by a recent article by the authors, which proves the nonlocal version of a conjecture of Yau., Comment: arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:2306.07100

Minimal surfaces in closed 3-manifolds are classically constructed via the Almgren-Pitts approach. The Allen-Cahn approximation has proved to be a powerful alternative, and Chodosh and Mantoulidis (in Ann. Math. 2020) used it to give a new proof of Yau's conjecture for generic metrics and establish the multiplicity one conjecture. The primary goal of this paper is to set the ground for a new approximation based on nonlocal minimal surfaces. More precisely, we prove that if $\partial E$ is a stable $s$-minimal surface in $B_1\subset \mathbb R^3$ then: - $\partial E\cap B_{1/2}$ enjoys a $C^{2,\alpha}$ estimate that is robust as $s\uparrow 1$ (i.e. uniform in $s$); - the distance between different connected components of~$\partial E\cap B_{1/2}$ must be at least of order~$(1-s)^{\frac 1 2}$ (optimal sheet separation estimate); - interactions between multiple sheets at distances of order $(1-s)^{\frac 1 2}$ are described by the D\'avila--del Pino--Wei system. A second important goal of the paper is to establish that hyperplanes are the only stable $s$-minimal hypersurfaces in $\mathbb R^4$, for $s\in(0,1)$ sufficiently close to $1$. This is done by exploiting suitable modifications of the results described above. In this application, it is crucially used that our curvature and separations estimates hold without any assumption on area bounds (in contrast to the analogous estimates for Allen-Cahn).

Despite significant recent advances in the regularity theory for obstacle problems with integro-differential operators, some fundamental questions remained open. On the one hand, there was a lack of understanding of parabolic problems with critical scaling, such as the obstacle problem for $\partial_t+\sqrt{-\Delta}$. No regularity result for free boundaries was known for parabolic problems with such scaling. On the other hand, optimal regularity estimates for solutions (to both parabolic and elliptic problems) relied strongly on monotonicity formulas and, therefore, were known only in some specific cases. In this paper, we present a novel and unified approach to answer these open questions and, at the same time, to treat very general operators, recovering as particular cases most previously known regularity results on nonlocal obstacle problems.

We introduce nonlocal minimal surfaces on closed manifolds and establish a far-reaching Yau-type result: in every closed, $n$-dimensional Riemannian manifold we construct infinitely many nonlocal $s$-minimal surfaces. We prove that, when $s\in (0,1)$ is sufficiently close to $1$, the constructed surfaces are smooth for $n=3$ and $n=4$, while for $n\ge 5$ they are smooth outside of a closed set of dimension $n-5$. Moreover, we prove surprisingly strong regularity and rigidity properties of finite Morse index $s$-minimal surfaces such as a "finite Morse index Bernstein-type result". These properties make nonlocal minimal surfaces ideal objects on which to apply min-max variational methods.

For the thin obstacle problem in $\mathbb{R}^n$, $n\geq 2$, we prove that at all free boundary points, with the exception of a $(n-3)$-dimensional set, the solution differs from its blow-up by higher order corrections. This expansion entails a $C^{1,1}$-type free boundary regularity result, up to a codimension 3 set.

We study stable solutions to the fractional Allen-Cahn equation \linebreak $(-\Delta)^{s/2} u = u-u^3$, $|u|<1$ in $\mathbb{R}^n$. For every $s\in (0,1)$ and dimension $n\geq 2$, we establish sharp energy estimates, density estimates, and the convergence of blow-downs to stable nonlocal $s$-minimal cones. As a consequence, we obtain a new classification result: if for some pair $(n,s)$, with $n\ge 3$, hyperplanes are the only stable nonlocal $s$-minimal cones in $\mathbb{R}^n\setminus\{0\}$, then every stable solution to the fractional Allen-Cahn equation in $\mathbb{R}^n$ is 1D, namely, its level sets are parallel hyperplanes. Combining this result with the classification of stable $s$-minimal cones in $\mathbb{R}^3\setminus\{0\}$ for $s\sim 1$ obtained by the authors in a recent paper, we give positive answers to the "stability conjecture" in $\mathbb{R}^3$ and to the "De Giorgi conjecture" in $\mathbb{R}^4$ for the fractional Allen-Cahn equation when the order $s\in (0,1)$ of the operator is sufficiently close to $1$.

We study critical points of a one-parameter family of functionals arising in combustion models. The problems we consider converge, for infinitesimal values of the parameter, to Bernoulli's free boundary problem, also known as one-phase problem. We prove a $C^{1,\alpha}$ estimates for the "interfaces" (level sets separating the burnt and unburnt regions). As a byproduct, we obtain the one-dimensional symmetry of minimizers in the whole $\mathbb{R}^N$, for $N \leq 4$, answering positively a conjecture of Fern\'andez-Real and Ros-Oton. Our results are to Bernoulli's free boundary problem what Savin's results for the Allen-Cahn equation are to minimal surfaces., Comment: 39 pages

In this paper we analyze the singular set in the Stefan problem and prove the following results: - The singular set has parabolic Hausdorff dimension at most $n-1$. - The solution admits a $C^\infty$-expansion at all singular points, up to a set of parabolic Hausdorff dimension at most $n-2$. - In $\mathbb R^3$, the free boundary is smooth for almost every time $t$, and the set of singular times $\mathcal S\subset \mathbb R$ has Hausdorff dimension at most $1/2$. These results provide us with a refined understanding of the Stefan problem's singularities and answer some long-standing open questions in the field.

We study solutions to $Lu=f$ in $\Omega\subset\mathbb R^n$, being $L$ the generator of any, possibly non-symmetric, stable L\'evy process. On the one hand, we study the regularity of solutions to $Lu=f$ in $\Omega$, $u=0$ in $\Omega^c$, in $C^{1,\alpha}$ domains~$\Omega$. We show that solutions $u$ satisfy $u/d^\gamma\in C^{\varepsilon_\circ}\big(\overline\Omega\big)$, where $d$ is the distance to $\partial\Omega$, and $\gamma=\gamma(L,\nu)$ is an explicit exponent that depends on the Fourier symbol of operator $L$ and on the unit normal $\nu$ to the boundary $\partial\Omega$. On the other hand, we establish new integration by parts identities in half spaces for such operators. These new identities extend previous ones for the fractional Laplacian, but the non-symmetric setting presents some new interesting features. Finally, we generalize the integration by parts identities in half spaces to the case of bounded $C^{1,\alpha}$ domains. We do it via a new efficient approximation argument, which exploits the H\"older regularity of $u/d^\gamma$. This new approximation argument is interesting, we believe, even in the case of the fractional Laplacian.

We prove the sharp quantitative stability for a wide class of weighted isoperimetric inequalities. More precisely, we consider isoperimetric inequalities in convex cones with homogeneous weights. Inspired by the proof of such isoperimetric inequalities through the ABP method, we construct a new convex coupling (i.e., a map that is the gradient of a convex function) between a generic set $E$ and the minimizer of the inequality (as in Gromov's proof of the isoperimetric inequality). Even if this map does not come from optimal transport, and even if there is a weight in the inequality, we adapt the methods of Figalli-Maggi-Pratelli and prove that if $E$ is almost optimal for the inequality then it is quantitatively close to a minimizer up to translations. Then, a delicate analysis is necessary to rule out the possibility of translations. As a step of our proof, we establish a sharp regularity result for restricted convex envelopes of a function that might be of independent interest., Comment: 34 pages, 1 figure

The goal of this paper is to establish generic regularity of free boundaries for the obstacle problem in $\mathbb R^n$. By classical results of Caffarelli, the free boundary is $C^\infty$ outside a set of singular points. Explicit examples show that the singular set could be in general $(n-1)$-dimensional ---that is, as large as the regular set. Our main result establishes that, generically, the singular set has zero $\mathcal H^{n-4}$ measure (in particular, it has codimension 3 inside the free boundary). In particular, for $n\leq4$, the free boundary is generically a $C^\infty$ manifold. This solves a conjecture of Schaeffer (dating back to 1974) on the generic regularity of free boundaries in dimensions $n\leq4$., Comment: To appear in Publ. Math. IH\'ES

In this paper we prove the following long-standing conjecture: stable solutions to semilinear elliptic equations are bounded (and thus smooth) in dimension $n \leq 9$. This result, that was only known to be true for $n\leq4$, is optimal: $\log(1/|x|^2)$ is a $W^{1,2}$ singular stable solution for $n\geq10$. The proof of this conjecture is a consequence of a new universal estimate: we prove that, in dimension $n \leq 9$, stable solutions are bounded in terms only of their $L^1$ norm, independently of the nonlinearity. In addition, in every dimension we establish a higher integrability result for the gradient and optimal integrability results for the solution in Morrey spaces. As one can see by a series of classical examples, all our results are sharp. Furthermore, as a corollary we obtain that extremal solutions of Gelfand problems are $W^{1,2}$ in every dimension and they are smooth in dimension $n \leq 9$. This answers to two famous open problems posed by Brezis and Brezis-V\'azquez., Comment: To appear in Acta Mathematica

We study the Plateau problem with a lower dimensional obstacle in $\mathbb{R}^n$. Intuitively, in $\mathbb{R}^3$ this corresponds to a soap film (spanning a given contour) that is pushed from below by a "vertical" 2D half-space (or some smooth deformation of it). We establish almost optimal $C^{1,1/2-}$ estimates for the solutions near points on the free boundary of the contact set, in any dimension $n\ge 2$. The $C^{1,1/2-}$ estimates follow from an $\varepsilon$-regularity result for minimal surfaces with thin obstacles in the spirit of the De Giorgi's improvement of flatness. To prove it, we follow Savin's small perturbations method. A nontrivial difficulty in using Savin's approach for minimal surfaces with thin obstacles is that near a typical contact point the solution consists of two smooth surfaces that intersect transversally, and hence it is not very flat at small scales. Via a new "dichotomy approach" based on barrier arguments we are able to overcome this difficulty and prove the desired result.

We prove that half spaces are the only stable nonlocal $s$-minimal cones in $\mathbb{R}^3$, for $s\in(0,1)$ sufficiently close to $1$. This is the first classification result of stable $s$-minimal cones in dimension higher than two. Its proof can not rely on a compactness argument perturbing from $s=1$. In fact, our proof gives a quantifiable value for the required closeness of $s$ to $1$. We use the geometric formula for the second variation of the fractional $s$-perimeter, which involves a squared nonlocal second fundamental form, as well as the recent BV estimates for stable nonlocal minimal sets.

In the classical obstacle problem, the free boundary can be decomposed into "regular" and "singular" points. As shown by Caffarelli in his seminal papers \cite{C77,C98}, regular points consist of smooth hypersurfaces, while singular points are contained in a stratified union of $C^1$ manifolds of varying dimension. In two dimensions, this $C^1$ result has been improved to $C^{1,\alpha}$ by Weiss \cite{W99}. In this paper we prove that, for $n=2$ singular points are locally contained in a $C^2$ curve. In higher dimension $n\ge 3$, we show that the same result holds with $C^{1,1}$ manifolds (or with countably many $C^2$ manifolds), up to the presence of some "anomalous" points of higher codimension. In addition, we prove that the higher dimensional stratum is always contained in a $C^{1,\alpha}$ manifold, thus extending to every dimension the result in \cite{W99}. We note that, in terms of density decay estimates for the contact set, our result is optimal. In addition, for $n\ge3$ we construct examples of very symmetric solutions exhibiting linear spaces of anomalous points, proving that our bound on their Hausdorff dimension is sharp.

We prove some detailed quantitative stability results for the contact set and the solution of the classical obstacle problem in $\mathbb{R}^n$ ($n \ge 2$) under perturbations of the obstacle function, which is also equivalent to studying the variation of the equilibrium measure in classical potential theory under a perturbation of the external field. To do so, working in the setting of the whole space, we examine the evolution of the free boundary $\Gamma^t$ corresponding to the boundary of the contact set for a family of obstacle functions $h^t$. Assuming that $h=h^t (x) = h(t,x)$ is $C^{k+1,\alpha}$ in $[-1,1]\times \mathbb{R}^n$ and that the initial free boundary $\Gamma^0$ is regular, we prove that $\Gamma^t$ is twice differentiable in $t$ in a small neighborhood of $t=0$. Moreover, we show that the "normal velocity" and the "normal acceleration" of $\Gamma^t$ are respectively $C^{k-1,\alpha}$ and $C^{k-2,\alpha}$ scalar fields on $\Gamma^t$. This is accomplished by deriving equations for these velocity and acceleration and studying the regularity of their solutions via single and double layers estimates from potential theory., Comment: 37 pages

We prove that every bounded stable solution of \[ (-\Delta)^{1/2} u + f(u) =0 \qquad \mbox{in }\mathbb R^3\] is a 1D profile, i.e., $u(x)= \phi(e\cdot x)$ for some $e\in \mathbb S^2$, where $\phi:\mathbb R\to \mathbb R$ is a nondecreasing bounded stable solution in dimension one. This proves the De Giorgi conjecture in dimension $4$ for the half-Laplacian. Equivalently, we give a positive answer to the De Giorgi conjecture for boundary reactions in $\mathbb R^{d+1}_+=\mathbb R^{d+1}\cap \{x_{d+1}\geq 0\}$ when $d = 4$, by proving that all critical points of $$ \int_{\{x_{d+1\geq 0}\}} \frac12 |\nabla U|^2 \,dx\, dx_{d+1} + \int_{\{x_{d+1}=0\}} \frac 1 4 (1-U^2)^2 \,dx $$ that are monotone in $\mathbb R^d$ (that is, up to a rotation, $\partial_{x_d} U>0$) are one dimensional. Our result is analogue to the fact that stable embedded minimal surfaces in $\mathbb R^3$ are planes. Note that the corresponding result about stable solutions to the classical Allen-Cahn equation (namely, when the half-Laplacian is replaced by the classical Laplacian) is still open.

We prove an improvement of flatness result for nonlocal phase transitions. For a class of nonlocal equations that includes $(-\Delta)^{s/2} u = u-u^3$, with~$s\in(0,1)$, we obtain a result in the same spirit of a celebrated theorem of Savin for the equation $-\Delta u = u-u^3$. As a consequence, we deduce that entire solutions to~$(-\Delta)^{s/2} u = u-u^3$ with asymptotically flat level sets are $1$D when~$s\in(0,1)$. The results presented are completely new even for the case of the fractional Laplacian, but the robustness of the proofs allows us to treat also more general, possibly anisotropic, integro-differential operators.

We provide a series of rigidity results for a nonlocal phase transition equation. The prototype equation that we consider is of the form $$ (-\Delta)^{s/2} u=u-u^3,$$ with~$s\in(0,1)$. More generally, we can take into account equations like $$ L u = f(u),$$ where $f$ is a bistable nonlinearity and $L$ is an integro-differential operator, possibly of anisotropic type. The results that we obtain are an improvement of flatness theorem and a series of theorems concerning the one-dimensional symmetry for monotone and minimal solutions, in the research line dictaded by a classical conjecture of E. De Giorgi. Here, we collect a series of pivotal results, of geometric type, which are exploited in the proofs of the main results in the companion paper.

We prove a boundary Harnack inequality for nonlocal elliptic operators $L$ in non-divergence form with bounded measurable coefficients. Namely, our main result establishes that if $Lu_1=Lu_2=0$ in $\Omega\cap B_1$, $u_1=u_2=0$ in $B_1\setminus\Omega$, and $u_1,u_2\geq0$ in $\mathbb R^n$, then $u_1$ and $u_2$ are comparable in $B_{1/2}$. The result applies to arbitrary open sets $\Omega$. When $\Omega$ is Lipschitz, we show that the quotient $u_1/u_2$ is H\"older continuous up to the boundary in $B_{1/2}$.

We study the regularity of the free boundary in the fully nonlinear thin obstacle problem. Our main result establishes that the free boundary is $C^1$ near regular points.

We establish quantitative properties of minimizers and stable sets for nonlocal interaction functionals, including the $s$-fractional perimeter as a particular case. On the one hand, we establish universal $BV$-estimates in every dimension $n\ge 2$ for stable sets. Namely, we prove that any stable set in $B_1$ has finite classical perimeter in $B_{1/2}$, with a universal bound. This nonlocal result is new even in the case of $s$-perimeters and its local counterpart (for classical stable minimal surfaces) was known only for simply connected two-dimensional surfaces immersed in $\mathbb R^3$. On the other hand, we prove quantitative flatness estimates for minimizers and stable sets in low dimensions $n=2,3$. More precisely, we show that a stable set in $B_R$, with $R$ large, is very close in measure to being a half space in $B_1$ ---with a quantitative estimate on the measure of the symmetric difference. As a byproduct, we obtain new classification results for stable sets in the whole plane.

We study the obstacle problem for integro-differential operators of order $2s$, with $s\in (0,1)$. Our main result establishes that the free boundary is $C^{1,\gamma}$ and $u\in C^{1,s}$ near all regular points. Namely, we prove the following dichotomy at all free boundary points $x_0\in\partial\{u=\varphi\}$: (i) either $u(x)-\varphi(x)=c\,d^{1+s}(x)+o(|x-x_0|^{1+s+\alpha})$ for some $c>0$, (ii) or $u(x)-\varphi(x)=o(|x-x_0|^{1+s+\alpha})$, where $d$ is the distance to the contact set $\{u=\varphi\}$. Moreover, we show that the set of free boundary points $x_0$ satisfying (i) is open, and that the free boundary is $C^{1,\gamma}$ and $u\in C^{1,s}$ near those points. These results were only known for the fractional Laplacian \cite{CSS}, and are completely new for more general integro-differential operators. The methods we develop here are purely nonlocal, and do not rely on any monotonicity-type formula for the operator. Thanks to this, our techniques can be applied in the much more general context of fully nonlinear integro-differential operators: we establish similar regularity results for obstacle problems with convex operators., Comment: Accepted for publication in Invent. Math

We establish sharp boundary regularity estimates in $C^1$ and $C^{1,\alpha}$ domains for nonlocal problems of the form $Lu=f$ in $\Omega$, $u=0$ in $\Omega^c$. Here, $L$ is a nonlocal elliptic operator of order $2s$, with $s\in(0,1)$. First, in $C^{1,\alpha}$ domains we show that all solutions $u$ are $C^s$ up to the boundary and that $u/d^s\in C^\alpha(\bar\Omega)$, where $d$ is the distance to $\partial\Omega$. In $C^1$ domains, solutions are in general not comparable to $d^s$, and we prove a boundary Harnack principle in such domains. Namely, we show that if $u_1$ and $u_2$ are positive solutions, then $u_1/u_2$ is bounded and H\"older continuous up to the boundary. Finally, we establish analogous results for nonlocal equations with bounded measurable coefficients in non-divergence form. All these regularity results will be essential tools in a forthcoming work on free boundary problems for nonlocal elliptic operators \cite{CRS-obstacle}.

We study nonlinear elliptic equations for operators corresponding to non-stable L\'evy diffusions. We include a sum of fractional Laplacians of different orders. Such operators are infinitesimal generators of non-stable (i.e., non self-similar) L\'evy processes. We establish the regularity of solutions, as well as sharp energy estimates. As a consequence, we prove a 1-D symmetry result for monotone solutions to Allen-Cahn type equations with a non-stable L\'evy diffusion. These operators may still be realized as local operators using a system of PDEs ---in the spirit of the extension problem of Caffarelli and Silvestre., Comment: Only some few typos were corrected

We establish Pohozaev identities and integration by parts type formulas for anisotropic integro-differential operators of order $2s$, with $s\in(0,1)$. These identities involve local boundary terms, in which the quantity $u/d^s|_{\partial\Omega}$ plays the role that $\partial u/\partial\nu$ plays in the second order case. Here, $u$ is any solution to $Lu=f(x,u)$ in $\Omega$, with $u=0$ in $\mathbb R^n\setminus\Omega$, and $d$ is the distance to $\partial\Omega$.

We establish sharp regularity estimates for solutions to $Lu=f$ in $\Omega\subset\mathbb R^n$, being $L$ the generator of any stable and symmetric L\'evy process. Such nonlocal operators $L$ depend on a finite measure on $S^{n-1}$, called the spectral measure. First, we study the interior regularity of solutions to $Lu=f$ in $B_1$. We prove that if $f$ is $C^\alpha$ then $u$ belong to $C^{\alpha+2s}$ whenever $\alpha+2s$ is not an integer. In case $f\in L^\infty$, we show that the solution $u$ is $C^{2s}$ when $s\neq1/2$, and $C^{2s-\epsilon}$ for all $\epsilon>0$ when $s=1/2$. Then, we study the boundary regularity of solutions to $Lu=f$ in $\Omega$, $u=0$ in $\mathbb R^n\setminus\Omega$, in $C^{1,1}$ domains $\Omega$. We show that solutions $u$ satisfy $u/d^s\in C^{s-\epsilon}(\overline\Omega)$ for all $\epsilon>0$, where $d$ is the distance to $\partial\Omega$. Finally, we show that our results are sharp by constructing two counterexamples., Comment: arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1404.1197

We establish an integration by parts formula in bounded domains for the higher order fractional Laplacian $(-\Delta)^s$ with $s>1$. We also obtain the Pohozaev identity for this operator. Both identities involve local boundary terms, and they extend the identities obtained by the authors in the case $s\in(0,1)$. As an immediate consequence of these results, we obtain a unique continuation property for the eigenfunctions $(-\Delta)^s\phi=\lambda\phi$ in $\Omega$, $\phi\equiv0$ in $\mathbb R^n\setminus\Omega$., Comment: The sign of the boundary term in Theorem 1.5 has been corrected

We establish $C^{\sigma+\alpha}$ interior estimates for concave nonlocal fully nonlinear equations of order $\sigma\in(0,2)$ with rough kernels. Namely, we prove that if $u\in C^{\alpha}(\mathbb R^n)$ solves in $B_1$ a concave translation invariant equation with kernels in $\mathcal L_0(\sigma)$, then $u$ belongs to $C^{\sigma+\alpha}(\overline{ B_{1/2}})$, with an estimate. More generally, our results allow the equation to depend on $x$ in a $C^\alpha$ fashion. Our method of proof combines a Liouville theorem and a blow-up (compactness) procedure. Due to its flexibility, the same method can be useful in different regularity proofs for nonlocal equations.

We study fine boundary regularity properties of solutions to fully nonlinear elliptic integro-differential equations of order $2s$, with $s\in(0,1)$. We consider the class of nonlocal operators $\mathcal L_*\subset \mathcal L_0$, which consists of infinitesimal generators of stable L\'evy processes belonging to the class $\mathcal L_0$ of Caffarelli-Silvestre. For fully nonlinear operators $I$ elliptic with respect to $\mathcal L_*$, we prove that solutions to $I u=f$ in $\Omega$, $u=0$ in $\mathbb R^n\setminus\Omega$, satisfy $u/d^s\in C^{s+\gamma}(\overline\Omega)$, where $d$ is the distance to $\partial\Omega$ and $f\in C^\gamma$. We expect the class $\mathcal L_*$ to be the largest scale invariant subclass of $\mathcal L_0$ for which this result is true. In this direction, we show that the class $\mathcal L_0$ is too large for all solutions to behave like $d^s$. The constants in all the estimates in this paper remain bounded as the order of the equation approaches 2. Thus, in the limit $s\uparrow1$ we recover the celebrated boundary regularity result due to Krylov for fully nonlinear elliptic equations., Comment: To appear in Duke Math. J

We prove space and time regularity for solutions of fully nonlinear parabolic integro-differential equations with rough kernels. We consider parabolic equations $u_t = \I u$, where $\I$ is translation invariant and elliptic with respect to the class $\mathcal L_0(\sigma)$ of Caffarelli and Silvestre, $\sigma\in(0,2)$ being the order of $\I$. We prove that if $u$ is a viscosity solution in $B_1 \times (-1,0]$ which is merely bounded in $\R^n \times (-1,0]$, then $u$ is $C^\beta$ in space and $C^{\beta/\sigma}$ in time in $\overline{B_{1/2}} \times [-1/2,0]$, for all $\beta< \min\{\sigma, 1+\alpha\}$, where $\alpha>0$. Our proof combines a Liouville type theorem ---relaying on the nonlocal parabolic $C^\alpha$ estimate of Chang and D\'avila--- and a blow up and compactness argument., Comment: Some typos fixed and proof of Proposition 4.5 simplified

We prove nonexistence of nontrivial bounded solutions to some nonlinear problems involving nonlocal operators of the form \[Lu(x)=\sum a_{ij}\partial_{ij}u+{\rm PV}\int_{\R^n}(u(x)-u(x+y))K(y)dy.\] These operators are infinitesimal generators of symmetric L\'evy processes. Our results apply to even kernels $K$ satisfying that $K(y)|y|^{n+\sigma}$ is nondecreasing along rays from the origin, for some $\sigma\in(0,2)$ in case $a_{ij}\equiv0$ and for $\sigma=2$ in case that $(a_{ij})$ is a positive definite symmetric matrix. Our nonexistence results concern Dirichlet problems for $L$ in star-shaped domains with critical and supercritical nonlinearities (where the criticality condition is in relation to $n$ and $\sigma$). We also establish nonexistence of bounded solutions to semilinear equations involving other nonlocal operators such as the higher order fractional Laplacian $(-\Delta)^s$ (here $s>1$) or the fractional $p$-Laplacian. All these nonexistence results follow from a general variational inequality in the spirit of a classical identity by Pucci and Serrin.

We study the extremal solution for the problem $(-\Delta)^s u=\lambda f(u)$ in $\Omega$, $u\equiv0$ in $\R^n\setminus\Omega$, where $\lambda>0$ is a parameter and $s\in(0,1)$. We extend some well known results for the extremal solution when the operator is the Laplacian to this nonlocal case. For general convex nonlinearities we prove that the extremal solution is bounded in dimensions $n<4s$. We also show that, for exponential and power-like nonlinearities, the extremal solution is bounded whenever $n<10s$. In the limit $s\uparrow1$, $n<10$ is optimal. In addition, we show that the extremal solution is $H^s(\R^n)$ in any dimension whenever the domain is convex. To obtain some of these results we need $L^q$ estimates for solutions to the linear Dirichlet problem for the fractional Laplacian with $L^p$ data. We prove optimal $L^q$ and $C^\beta$ estimates, depending on the value of $p$. These estimates follow from classical embedding results for the Riesz potential in $\R^n$. Finally, to prove the $H^s$ regularity of the extremal solution we need an $L^\infty$ estimate near the boundary of convex domains, which we obtain via the moving planes method. For it, we use a maximum principle in small domains for integro-differential operators with decreasing kernels.

We prove some old and new isoperimetric inequalities with the best constant using the ABP method applied to an appropriate linear Neumann problem. More precisely, we obtain a new family of sharp isoperimetric inequalities with weights (also called densities) in open convex cones of $\mathbb{R}^n$. Our result applies to all nonnegative homogeneous weights satisfying a concavity condition in the cone. Remarkably, Euclidean balls centered at the origin (intersected with the cone) minimize the weighted isoperimetric quotient, even if all our weights are nonradial ---except for the constant ones. We also study the anisotropic isoperimetric problem in convex cones for the same class of weights. We prove that the Wulff shape (intersected with the cone) minimizes the anisotropic weighted perimeter under the weighted volume constraint. As a particular case of our results, we give new proofs of two classical results: the Wulff inequality and the isoperimetric inequality in convex cones of Lions and Pacella., Comment: Versions 3, 2, and 1 differ in a new paragraph (the second one in page 9 of v3) and some few typos

In this note we present the solution of some isoperimetric problems in open convex cones of $\R^n$ in which perimeter and volume are measured with respect to certain nonradial weights. Surprisingly, Euclidean balls centered at the origin (intersected with the convex cone) minimize the isoperimetric quotient. Our result applies to all nonnegative homogeneous weights satisfying a concavity condition in the cone. When the weight is constant, the result was established by Lions and Pacella in 1990.

We study the regularity up to the boundary of solutions to the Dirichlet problem for the fractional Laplacian. We prove that if $u$ is a solution of $(-\Delta)^s u = g$ in $\Omega$, $u \equiv 0$ in $\R^n\setminus\Omega$, for some $s\in(0,1)$ and $g \in L^\infty(\Omega)$, then $u$ is $C^s(\R^n)$ and $u/\delta^s|_{\Omega}$ is $C^\alpha$ up to the boundary $\partial\Omega$ for some $\alpha\in(0,1)$, where $\delta(x)={\rm dist}(x,\partial\Omega)$. For this, we develop a fractional analog of the Krylov boundary Harnack method. Moreover, under further regularity assumptions on $g$ we obtain higher order H\"older estimates for $u$ and $u/\delta^s$. Namely, the $C^\beta$ norms of $u$ and $u/\delta^s$ in the sets $\{x\in\Omega : \delta(x)\geq\rho\}$ are controlled by $C\rho^{s-\beta}$ and $C\rho^{\alpha-\beta}$, respectively. These regularity results are crucial tools in our proof of the Pohozaev identity for the fractional Laplacian \cite{RS-CRAS,RS}.

In this paper we prove the Pohozaev identity for the semilinear Dirichlet problem $(-\Delta)^s u = f(u)$ in $\Omega$, $u \equiv 0$ in $\mathbb R^n\setminus\Omega$. Here, $s\in(0,1)$, $(-\Delta)^s$ is the fractional Laplacian in $\mathbb R^n$, and $\Omega$ is a bounded $C^{1,1}$ domain. To establish the identity we use, among other things, that if $u$ is a bounded solution then $u/\delta^s|_{\Omega}$ is $C^\alpha$ up to the boundary $\partial\Omega$, where $\delta(x)={\rm dist}(x,\partial\Omega)$. In the fractional Pohozaev identity, the function $u/\delta^s|_{\partial\Omega}$ plays the role that $\partial u/\partial\nu$ plays in the classical one. Surprisingly, from a nonlocal problem we obtain an identity with a boundary term (an integral over $\partial\Omega$) which is completely local. As an application of our identity, we deduce the nonexistence of nontrivial solutions in star-shaped domains for supercritical nonlinearities., Comment: The sign of the boundary term in Theorem 1.9 has been corrected

In this note we present the Pohozaev identity for the fractional Laplacian. As a consequence of this identity, we prove the nonexistence of nontrivial bounded solutions to semilinear problems with supercritical nonlinearities in star-shaped domains.

We prove a radial symmetry result for bounded nonnegative solutions to the $p$-Laplacian semilinear equation $-\Delta_p u=f(u)$ posed in a ball of $\mathbb R^n$ and involving discontinuous nonlinearities $f$. When $p=2$ we obtain a new result which holds in every dimension $n$ for certain positive discontinuous $f$. When $p\ge n$ we prove radial symmetry for every locally bounded nonnegative $f$. Our approach is an extension of a method of P. L. Lions for the case $p=n=2$. It leads to radial symmetry combining the isoperimetric inequality and the Pohozaev identity.