Does the Laplace's equation $\nabla^2 u=0$ could have smooth compact-supported solutions $\in C_c^\infty$? Any example?

187 Views Asked by At

Does the Laplace's equation $\nabla^2 u=0$ could have smooth compact-supported solutions $\in C_c^\infty$? Any example?

In this answer an user named @NinadMunshi explain that the following function $f:\Bbb{R}^3\to\Bbb{R}$

$$f(x,y,z) = \begin{cases}\exp\left[\frac{-1}{R^2-x^2-y^2-z^2}\right] & x^2+y^2+z^2 < R^2 \\ 0 & x^2+y^2+z^2 \geq R^2\end{cases}$$

Then for $k\in\Bbb{R}^3$ with $|k|=1$, we have that

$$E_i(x,y,z,t) = f(x-ck_xt,y-ck_yt, z-ck_zt)$$

satisfies the wave equation $\frac{1}{c^2}\frac{\partial^2}{\partial t^2}E=\nabla^2 E$.

I would like to know if its possible also for the Laplace's Equation $\nabla^2 u = 0$ to stand smooth bump-like solutions $\in C_c^\infty$, at least in one coordinate.

I believe that if the function is complex-valued $u(\vec{x}) \in \mathbb{C}$ then no harmonic solution could be compact-supported due the Liouville's theorem (complex analysis), at least if is not defined piecewise as the example for the wave equation, but I don't have any intuition of what would happen if the function is real-valued.

Hope you can answer giving a basic example: piecewise solution are allowed, but must be solving the differential equation in the whole domain and not only where the non-zero piecewise section is defined, so it behave as a properly solution to the Laplace's equation which has a smooth bump function behavior (as it does the example for the wave equation).


Motivation

Recently I learned that a scalar 2nd order ordinary differential equation (ODE) require to have a point in time where is locally non-Lipschitz in order to been able of having solution with a finite extinction time (details here, reference on this paper), which brakes uniqueness of solutions.

Since this will apply for scalar smooth bump functions, I would like to know why this singular point is not required on PDEs for having a smooth-bump behavior on any coordinate as is shown for the wave equation example, so I would like to know how the arise for the Laplace's equation, or if instead they aren't possible.

1

There are 1 best solutions below

0
On BEST ANSWER

This answer is just for closing this question, since it was given on the comments by @Aruralreader:

Due the Maximum principle apply for the Laplace equation, it implies that the maximum of the function must happen on the "boundaries", so if the solution is a smooth-bump function it will imply that the maximum is on the edges were the function value is zero, so the only possible solution fulfilling both situations is the zero function.