A Priori Estimates and Existence of Positive Solutions for a Quasilinear Elliptic Equation

On the basis of some new Liouville theorems, under suitableconditions, a priori estimates are obtained of positive solutionsof the problem where R^N (N 2) is a bounded smooth domain, p>1 and isa parameter, , q are given constants such that p–1<<p*–1, <q, p*=Np/(N–p) if N > p and p*= when N p, and a(x) is a continuous nonnegative function. Makinguse of the Leray–Schauder degree of a compact mappingand a priori estimates, the paper finds that the problem abovepossesses at least one positive solution. It also discussesthe corresponding perturbed problem, where a(x) is replacedby a(x)+, >0. The results are strikingly different from thoseobtained for the case =p–1.