Quadratic perturbation proof of the minimum principle

ID: quadratic-perturbation-proof-of-the-minimum-principle

For on a bounded domain in with , the minimum lies on the boundary. Define , so . An interior minimum would have positive semidefinite Hessian matrix and nonnegative trace, a contradiction. Thus attains its minimum on the boundary. Boundedness controls uniformly by a constant times ; letting proves the weak minimum principle for the original superharmonic function. The perturbation handles the non-strict inequality, including constant functions.

New to topics? Read the docs here!