Abstract

The higher order quasilinear elliptic equation Δ(Δp(Δu))=f(x,u) subject to Dirichlet boundary conditions may have unique and regular positive solution. If the domain is a ball, we obtain a priori estimate to the radial solutions via blowup. Extensions to systems and general domains are also presented. The basic ingredients are the maximum principle, Moser iterative scheme, an eigenvalue problem, a priori estimates by rescalings, sub/supersolutions, and Krasnosel'skiĭ fixed point theorem.