A semilinear elliptic problem on unbounded domains with reverse penalty

In the well-known work of P.-L. Lions [The concentration–compactness principle in the calculus of variations, The locally compact case, part 1. Ann. Inst. H. Poincaré, Analyse Non Linéaire 1 (1984) 109–1453] existence of positive solutions to the equation -Δu+u=b(x)u^p-1$-\mathrm{\Delta }u+u=b(x)u^{p-1}$, u>0$u>0$, u∈H¹(R^N)$u\in H^1({\mathbb{R}}^N)$, p∈(2,2N/(N-2))$p\in (2,2N/(N-2))$ was proved under assumption b(x)?_b∞?_lim|x|→∞b(x)$b(x)?b_{\infty }?{\lim }_{\left|x\right|\to \infty }b(x)$. In this paper we prove the existence for certain functions b   satisfying the reverse inequality b(x)<_b∞$b(x)<b_{\infty }$. For any periodic lattice L   in R^N${\mathbb{R}}^N$ and for any b∈C(R^N)$b\in C({\mathbb{R}}^N)$ satisfying b(x)<_b∞$b(x)<b_{\infty }$, _b∞>0$b_{\infty }>0$, there is a finite set Y⊂L$Y\subset L$ and a convex combination b^Y$b^Y$ of b(·-y)$b(·-y)$, y∈Y$y\in Y$, such that the problem -Δu+u=b^Y(x)u^p-1$-\mathrm{\Delta }u+u=b^Y(x)u^{p-1}$ has a positive solution u∈H¹(R^N)$u\in H^1({\mathbb{R}}^N)$.