A direct method of moving planes for the fractional Laplacian

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In this paper, we develop a direct method of moving planes for the fractional Laplacian. Instead of conventional extension method introduced by Caffarelli and Silvestre, we work directly on the non-local operator. Using the integral defining the fractional Laplacian, by an elementary approach, we first obtain the key ingredients needed in the method of moving planes either in a bounded domain or in the whole space, such as strong maximum principles for anti-symmetric functions, narrow region principles, and decay at infinity. Then, using a simple example, a semi-linear equation involving the fractional Laplacian, we illustrate how this new method of moving planes can be employed to obtain symmetry and non-existence of positive solutions. We firmly believe that the ideas and methods introduced here can be conveniently applied to study a variety of nonlocal problems with more general operators and more general nonlinearities.