SYMMETRY AND MONOTONICITY OF SOLUTIONS TO FRACTIONAL ELLIPTIC AND PARABOLIC EQUATIONS

SYMMETRY AND MONOTONICITY OF SOLUTIONS TO FRACTIONAL ELLIPTIC AND PARABOLIC EQUATIONS

In this paper, we first apply parabolic inequalities and a maximum principle to give a new proof for symmetry and monotonicity of solutions to fractional elliptic equations with gradient term by the method of moving planes. Under the condition of suitable initial value, by maximum principles for the fractional parabolic equations, we obtain symmetry and monotonicity of positive solutions for each finite time to nonlinear fractional parabolic equations in a bounded domain and the whole space. More generally, if bounded domain is a ball, then we show that the solution is radially symmetric and monotone decreasing about the origin for each finite time. We firmly believe that parabolic inequalities and a maximum principle introduced here can be conveniently applied to study a variety of nonlocal elliptic and parabolic problems with more general operators and more general nonlinearities.