Energy estimates and 1-D symmetry for nonlinear equations involving the half-Laplacian

Abstract

We establish sharp energy estimates for some solutions, such as global minimizers, monotone solutions and saddle-shaped solutions, of the fractional nonlinear equation 1/2 in R n. Our energy estimates hold for every nonlinearity and are sharp since they are optimal for one-dimensional solutions, that is, for solutions depending only on one Euclidian variable. As a consequence, in dimension , we deduce the one-dimensional symmetry of every global minimizer and of every monotone solution. This result is the analog of a conjecture of De Giorgi on one-dimensional symmetry for the classical equation in R n.