Sign-definiteness of q-eigenfunctions for a super-linear p-Laplacian eigenvalue problem

We consider the following q-eigenvalue problem for the p-Laplacian $$\left\{\begin{array}{ll}-{\rm div}\big( |\nabla u|^{p-2}\nabla u\big) = \lambda \|u\|_{L^{q}(\Omega)}^{p-q}|u|^{q-2}u \quad \quad\, {\rm in} \,\,\,\, \Omega\\ \quad\quad\quad \quad \quad \quad u = 0 \quad\qquad\qquad \quad\quad \,\,{\rm on } \,\,\,\, \partial\Omega,\end{array}\right.$$ where \({\lambda\in\mathbb{R},}\) p > 1, Ω is a bounded and smooth domain of \({\mathbb{R}^{N},}\) N > 1, \({1\leq q < p^{\star}}\) , \({p^{\star}=\frac{Np}{N-p}}\) if p < N and \({p^{\star}=\infty}\) if \({p\geq N.}\) Let λ _q denote the first q-eigenvalue. We prove that in the super-linear case, \({p < q < p^{\star},}\) there exists \({\epsilon_{q}>0}\) such that if \({\lambda\in(\lambda_{q},\lambda _{q}+\epsilon_{q})}\) is a q-eigenvalue, then any corresponding q-eigenfunction does not change sign in Ω. As a consequence of this result we obtain, in the super-linear case, the isolatedness of λ _q for those Ω such that the Lane–Emden problem $$\left\{\begin{array}{ll}-{\rm div}\big(|\nabla u|^{p-2}\nabla u\big) = |u|^{q-2}u \qquad\quad\quad\quad \,\,{\rm in}\,\,\,\Omega\\ \quad\quad\quad \quad \quad \quad u = 0 \quad\qquad\qquad \quad\quad \,{\rm on } \,\,\, \partial\Omega,\end{array}\right.$$ has exactly one positive solution.     

On the solutions of a singular elliptic equation concentrating on two orthogonal spheres

Let \({A=\{x\in \mathbb{R}^{2m}: 0 < a < |x| < b\}}\) be an annulus. We consider the following singularly perturbed elliptic problem on A $$\left\{\begin{array}{lll}-\varepsilon ^2{\Delta u} + |x|^{\eta}u =|x|^{\eta}u^p, \quad {\rm in} A,\\ u > 0, \quad \quad \quad \quad \quad \quad \quad {\rm in} A, \\ u=0, \quad \quad \quad \quad \quad \quad \quad {\rm on}\partial A,\end{array}\right. $$ where \({1 < p < \frac{m+3}{m-1}}\) . We shall prove the existence of a positive solution \({u_\epsilon }\) which concentrates on two different orthogonal spheres of dimension (m?1) as \({\varepsilon \to 0}\) . We achieve this by studying a reduced problem on an annular domain in \({\mathbb{R}^{m+1}}\) and analysing the profile of a two point concentrating solution in this domain.     

Regularity lifting of weak solutions for nonlinear sub-Laplace equations on homogeneous groups

Let G be a homogeneous group, and let X ₁, X ₂, … , X _m be left invariant real vector fields being homogeneous of degree one on G. We consider the following Dirichlet boundary value problem of the sub-Laplace equation involving the critical exponent and singular term: $$\left\{\begin{array}{ll}-\sum_{j=1}^{m}X_j^2u(x)-\frac{a}{\|x\|^\nu}u(x)=u^{\frac{Q+2}{Q-2}}(x), x\in\Omega,\\ u(x)=0, \quad\quad\quad\quad\quad\quad\quad\quad\quad\quad\quad\quad\,\,\,\, x\in \partial\Omega,\end{array}\right.$$ where ${\Omega\subset G}$ is a bounded domain with smooth boundary and ${\mathbf{0}\in\Omega}$ , Q is the homogeneous dimension of G, ${a\in \mathbb{R},\ \nu <2 }$ . We boost u to ${L^p(\Omega)}$ for any ${1\leq p < \infty}$ if ${u\in S^{1,2}_0(\Omega)}$ is a weak solution of the problem above.     

Principal Eigenvalue of p-Laplacian Operator in Exterior Domain

We consider an eigenvalue problem of the form $$\left.\begin{array}{cl}-\Delta_{p} u = \lambda\, K(x)|u|^{p-2}u \quad \mbox{in}\quad \Omega^e\\ u(x) =0 \quad \mbox{for}\quad \partial \Omega\\ u(x) \to 0 \quad \mbox{as}\quad |x| \to \infty,\end{array} \right \}$$ where \({\Omega \subset \mathrm{I\!R\!}^N}\) is a simply connected bounded domain, containing the origin, with C ² boundary \({\partial \Omega}\) and \({\Omega^e:=\mathrm{I\!R\!^N} \setminus \overline{\Omega}}\) is the exterior domain, \({1 < p < N, \Delta_{p}u:={\rm div}(|\nabla u|^{p-2} \nabla u)}\) is the p-Laplacian operator and \({K \in L^{\infty}(\Omega^e) \cap L^{N/p}(\Omega^e)}\) is a positive function. Existence and properties of principal eigenvalue λ ₁ and its corresponding eigenfunction are established which are generally known in bounded domain or in \({\mathrm{I\!R\!}^N}\) . We also establish the decay rate of positive eigenfunction as \({|x| \to \infty}\) as well as near ?Ω.     

Bifurcation and symmetry breaking for a class of semilinear elliptic equations in an annulus

In this paper we consider the problem $$\left\{ \begin{array}{ll} -\Delta u=u^p+\lambda u & \quad\hbox{ in }A,\\ u > 0&\quad \hbox{ in }A,\\ u=0 &\quad \hbox{ on }\partial A, \end{array}\right. $$ where A is an annulus of ${\mathbb{R}^N,N\ge2}$ and p?>?1. We prove bifurcation of nonradial solutions from the radial solution in correspondence of a sequence of exponents {p _k } and for expanding annuli.     

Multiple positive solutions of singular and critical elliptic problem in {\mathbb{R}^2} with discontinuous nonlinearities

Let Ω be a bounded domain in ${\mathbb{R}^2}$ with smooth boundary. We consider the following singular and critical elliptic problem with discontinuous nonlinearity: $$(P_\lambda)\left \{\begin{array}{ll} - \Delta u = \lambda \left(\frac{m(x, u) e^{\alpha{u}^2}}{|x|^{\beta}} + u^{q}g(u - a)\right),\quad{u} > 0 \quad {\rm in} \quad \Omega\\u \quad \quad = 0\quad {\rm on} \quad \partial \Omega \end{array}\right.$$ where ${0\leq q < 1 ,0< \alpha\leq4\pi}$ and ${\beta \in [0, 2)}$ such that ${\frac{\beta}{2} + \frac{\alpha}{4\pi} \leq 1}$ and ${{g(t - a) = \left\{\begin{array}{ll}1, t \leq a\\ 0, t > a.\end{array}\right.}}$ Under the suitable assumptions on m(x, t) we show the existence and multiplicity of solutions for maximal interval for λ.     

On a class of singular elliptic problems with the perturbed Hardy–Sobolev operator

In this paper, firstly, we investigate a class of singular eigenvalue problems with the perturbed Hardy–Sobolev operator, and obtain some properties of the eigenvalues and the eigenfunctions. (i.e. existence, simplicity, isolation and comparison results). Secondly, applying these properties of eigenvalue problem, and the linking theorem for two symmetric cones in Banach space, we discuss the following singular elliptic problem $$\left\{\begin{array}{ll}-\Delta_{p}u-a(x)\frac{|u|^{p-2}u}{|x|^{p}}= \lambda \eta(x)|u|^{p-2}u+ f(x,u) \quad x \in \Omega, \\ u =0 \quad\quad\quad\quad\quad\quad\quad x\in\partial \Omega, \end{array} \right.$$ where ${a(x)=(\frac{n-p}{p})^{p}q(x),}$ if 1 < p < n, ${a(x)=(\frac{n-1}{n})^{n} \frac{q(x)}{({\rm log}\frac{R}{|x|})^{n}},}$ if p = n, and prove the existence of a nontrivial weak solution for any ${\lambda \in \mathbb{R}.}$      

Existence and multiplicity results for Pucci’s operators involving nonlinearities with zeros

We study the problem $$ \left\{\begin{array}{ll} {-\varepsilon^{2}\mathcal{M}^+_{\lambda,\Lambda}(D^{2}u) = f (x, u)} \quad\; {\rm in} \; \Omega,\\ {u = 0} \quad\quad\quad\quad\quad\quad\quad\quad\quad\quad {\rm on} \; \partial{\Omega}, \end{array} \right.$$ where Ω is a smooth bounded domain in ${\mathbb{R}^{N},N > 2,}$ and show it possesses nontrivial solutions for small values of ε provided f is a nonnegative continuous function which has a positive zero. The multiplicity result is based on degree theory together with a new Liouville type theorem for ${-{M}^+_{\lambda,\Lambda}(D^{2}u) = f(u)}$ in ${\mathbb{R}^{N}}$ for nonnegative nonlinearities with zeros.     

Perturbed asymptotically linear problems

The aim of this paper is to investigate the existence of solutions of the semilinear elliptic problem $$\left\{\begin{array}{ll} -\Delta u\ =\ p(x, u) + \varepsilon g(x, u)\quad {\rm in}\,\, \Omega, \\ u=0 \quad\quad\quad\quad\quad\quad\quad\quad\quad\,\,\,\,\,\,{\rm on}\,\, \partial\Omega, \end{array} \right. \quad\quad\quad(0.1) $$ where Ω is an open bounded domain of ${\mathbb{R}^N}$ , ${\varepsilon\in\mathbb{R}, p}$ is subcritical and asymptotically linear at infinity, and g is just a continuous function. Even when this problem has not a variational structure on ${H^1_0(\Omega)}$ , suitable procedures and estimates allow us to prove that the number of distinct critical levels of the functional associated to the unperturbed problem is “stable” under small perturbations, in particular obtaining multiplicity results if p is odd, both in the non-resonant and in the resonant case.     

Radial and non radial solutions for Hardy–Hénon type elliptic systems

We discuss existence and non-existence of positive solutions for the following system of Hardy and Hénon type: $$\left\{\begin{array}{ll} {-\Delta v=|x|^{\alpha}u^{p},\,-\Delta u=|x|^{\beta}v^{q} \,\,{\rm in}\, \Omega,}\\ {u=v=0 \quad\quad\quad\quad\quad\quad\quad\quad\quad{\rm on}\, \partial \Omega}, \end{array}\right.$$ where ${\Omega\ni 0}$ is a bounded domain in ${\mathbb{R}^{N}}$ , N ≥ 3, p, q > 1, and α, β > ?N. We also study symmetry breaking for ground states when Ω is the unit ball in ${\mathbb{R}^{N}}$ .     

Parabolic power concavity and parabolic boundary value problems

This paper is concerned with power concavity properties of the solution to the parabolic boundary value problem $$\begin{aligned} (P)\quad \left\{ \begin{array}{l@{\quad }l} \partial _t u=\varDelta u +f(x,t,u,\nabla u) &{} \text{ in }\quad \varOmega \times (0,\infty ),\\ u(x,t)=0 &{} \text{ on }\quad \partial \varOmega \times (0,\infty ),\\ u(x,0)=0 &{} \text{ in }\quad \varOmega , \end{array} \right. \end{aligned}$$ where $\varOmega $ is a bounded convex domain in $\mathbf{R}^n$ and $f$ is a nonnegative continuous function in $\varOmega \times (0,\infty )\times \mathbf{R}\times \mathbf{R}^n$ . We give a sufficient condition for the solution of $(P)$ to be parabolically power concave in $\overline{\varOmega }\times [0,\infty )$ .     

Topological degree for solutions of fourth order mean field equations

We consider the following fourth order mean field equation with Navier boundary condition $$\Delta^2 u = \rho \frac{h(x) e^{u}}{\int_\Omega h e^{u}}\,\,{\rm in}\, \Omega,{\quad}u = \Delta u = 0\,\,{\rm on}\,\partial \Omega,\quad\quad\quad\quad\quad\quad\quad\quad\quad\quad(*)$$ where h is a C ^2,?? positive function, ?? is a bounded and smooth domain in ${\mathbb{R}^4}$ . We prove that for ${\rho \in (32m\sigma_3, 32(m + 1)\sigma_3)}$ the degree-counting formula for (*) is given by $$d(\rho)=\left\{\begin{array}{ll}\frac{1}{m!} (-\chi (\Omega) +1) \cdot\cdot \cdot (-\chi(\Omega)+m) & {\rm for}\, m >0 ,\\ 1 & {\rm for}\, m=0\end{array}\right.$$ where ??(??) is the Euler characteristic of ??. Similar result is also proved for the corresponding Dirichlet problem $$\Delta^2 u = \rho \frac{h(x) e^{u}}{\int_\Omega h e^{u}}\quad{\rm in}\,\Omega, \quad u = \nabla u = 0 \quad {\rm on}\,\,\partial \Omega.\quad\quad\quad\quad\quad\quad\quad\quad\quad\quad(**)$$      

Infinitely many solutions for the prescribed curvature problem of polyharmonic operator

We consider the following prescribed curvature problem for polyharmonic operator: $$\left\{\begin{array}{llll} D_{m} u = \tilde{K}(y)|u|^{m^*-2}u\; {\rm in}\; \mathbb{S}^N\\ u \quad\; >0\qquad\quad\quad\quad\quad{\rm on}\; \mathbb{S}^N\\ u \quad\; \in H^{m}(\mathbb{S}^N), \end{array} \right.$$ where ${m^*=\frac{2N}{N-2m}, N\geq 2m+1,m \in \mathbb{N}_{+}, \tilde{K}}$ is positive and rationally symmetric, ${\mathbb{S}^N}$ is the unit sphere with the induced Riemannian metric ${g=g_{\mathbb{S}^N},}$ and D _m is the elliptic differential operator of 2m order given by $$\begin{array}{lll}D_m={\prod\limits_{k=1}^m}{\left(-\Delta_g+\frac{1}{4}(N-2k)(N+2k-2)\right)}\end{array}$$ where Δ _g is the Laplace-Beltrami operator on ${\mathbb{S}^N}$ . We will show that problem (P) has infinitely many non-radial positive solutions, whose energy can be arbitrary large.     

On the Fučik spectrum of non-local elliptic operators

In this article, we study the Fu?ik spectrum of the fractional Laplace operator which is defined as the set of all \({(\alpha, \beta)\in \mathbb{R}^2}\) such that $$\quad \left.\begin{array}{ll}\quad (-\Delta)^s u = \alpha u^{+} - \beta u^{-} \quad {\rm in}\;\Omega \\ \quad \quad \quad u = 0 \quad \quad \quad \qquad {\rm in}\; \mathbb{R}^n{\setminus}\Omega.\end{array}\right\}$$ has a non-trivial solution u, where \({\Omega}\) is a bounded domain in \({\mathbb{R}^n}\) with Lipschitz boundary, n > 2s, \({s \in (0, 1)}\) . The existence of a first nontrivial curve \({\mathcal{C}}\) of this spectrum, some properties of this curve \({\mathcal{C}}\) , e.g. Lipschitz continuous, strictly decreasing and asymptotic behavior are studied in this article. A variational characterization of second eigenvalue of the fractional eigenvalue problem is also obtained. At the end, we study a nonresonance problem with respect to the Fu?ik spectrum.     

Strong Regularizing Effect of a Gradient Term in the Heat Equation with a Weight

We deal with the following parabolic problem, $$(P)\left\{\begin{array}{lll} u_t - \Delta{u} + |\nabla{u}|^q \quad=\quad \lambda{g}(x)u + f(x, t),\quad u > 0 \; {\rm in} \; \Omega \; \times \; (0, T),\\ \qquad\quad\quad\; u(x, t) \quad=\quad 0 \quad{\rm on}\; {\partial}{\Omega}\; \times ; (0, T),\\ \qquad\quad\quad\; u(x, 0) \quad=\quad u_{0}(x), \quad x \in {\Omega},\end{array}\right.$$ where is a bounded regular domain or ${\Omega = \mathbb{R}^N}$ , ${1 < q \leq 2, \lambda > 0\; {\rm and}\; f \geq 0, u_{0} \geq 0}$ are in a suitable class of functions. We give assumptions on g with respect to q for which for all λ >  0 and all ${f \in L^1(\Omega_T ), f \geq 0}$ , problem (P) has a positive solution. Under some additional conditions on the data, the Cauchy problem and the asymptotic behavior of the solution are also considered.     

Maximal and minimal solutions of an Aronsson equation: L ∞ variational problems versus the game theory

The Dirichlet problem $$ \left\{ \begin{array}{l}\Delta _\infty u - |Du|^2 = 0 \quad {\rm on} \, \Omega \subset {{\mathbb R}^n} \\ u|\partial \Omega = g \\\end{array} \right. $$ might have many solutions, where ${\Delta_{\infty}u=\sum_{1\leq i,j\leq n}u_{x_i}u_{x_j}u_{x_ix_j}}$ . In this paper, we prove that the maximal solution is the unique absolute minimizer for ${H(p,z)={\frac{1}{2}}|p|^2-z}$ from calculus of variations in L ^∞ and the minimal solution is the continuum value function from the “tug-of-war” game. We will also characterize graphes of solutions which are neither an absolute minimizer nor a value function. A remaining interesting question is how to interpret those intermediate solutions. Most of our approaches are based on an idea of Barles–Busca (Commun Partial Differ Equ 26(11–12):2323–2337, 2001).     

Infinitely many solutions for an elliptic problem involving critical Sobolev growth and Hardy potential

In this paper, we will prove the existence of infinitely many solutions for the following elliptic problem with critical Sobolev growth and a Hardy potential: $$-\Delta u-\frac{\mu}{|x|^2}u = |u|^{2^{\ast}-2}u+a u\quad {\rm in}\;\Omega,\quad u=0 \quad {\rm on}\; \partial\Omega,\qquad (*)$$ under the assumptions that N ≥ 7, ${\mu\in \left[0,\frac{(N-2)^2}4-4\right)}$ and a > 0, where ${2^{\ast}=\frac{2N}{N-2}}$ , and Ω is an open bounded domain in ${\mathbb{R}^N}$ which contains the origin. To achieve this goal, we consider the following perturbed problem of (*), which is of subcritical growth, $$-\Delta u-\frac{\mu}{|x|^2}u = |u|^{2^{\ast}-2-\varepsilon_n}u+au \quad {\rm in}\,\Omega, \quad u=0 \quad {\rm on}\;\partial\Omega,\qquad(\ast\ast)_n$$ where ${\varepsilon_{n} > 0}$ is small and ${\varepsilon_n \to 0}$ as n → + ∞. By the critical point theory for the even functionals, for each fixed ${\varepsilon_{n} > 0}$ small, (**) _n has a sequence of solutions ${u_{k,\varepsilon_{n}} \in H^{1}_{0}(\Omega)}$ . We obtain the existence of infinitely many solutions for (*) by showing that as n → ∞, ${u_{k,\varepsilon_{n}}}$ converges strongly in ${H^{1}_{0}(\Omega)}$ to u _k , which must be a solution of (*). Such a convergence is obtained by applying a local Pohozaev identity to exclude the possibility of the concentration of ${\{u_{k,\varepsilon_n}\}}$ .     

Large viscosity solutions for some fully nonlinear equations

We study existence, uniqueness and asymptotic behavior near the boundary of solutions of the problem $$\left\{\begin{array}{ll}-F(D^{2} u) + \beta (u) = f \quad {\rm in} \, \Omega, \\ u = + \infty \quad \quad \quad \quad \quad \quad \,\,\,\, {\rm on}\, \partial \Omega, \end{array} \right.\quad \quad \quad \quad \quad {\rm (P)}$$ where Ω is a bounded smooth domain in ${{\mathbb R}^N, N >1 , F}$ is a fully nonlinear elliptic operator and β is a nondecreasing continuous function. Assuming that β satisfies the Keller–Osserman condition, we obtain existence results which apply to ${f \in L^\infty_{loc}(\Omega)}$ or f having only local integrability properties where viscosity solutions are well defined, i.e. ${f \in L^N_{loc}(\Omega)}$ . Besides, we find the asymptotic behavior near the boundary of solutions of (P) for a wide class of functions ${f \in \mathcal{C}(\Omega)}$ . Based in this behavior, we also prove uniqueness.     

A weighted Hardy inequality and nonexistence of positive solutions

In this article, we prove that the following weighted Hardy inequality $$\begin{array}{ll}\big(\frac{|{d-p}|}{p}\big)^{p}\, \int\limits_{\Omega}\, \frac{|{u}|^{p}}{|{x}|^{p}}\;d\mu \\ \quad \quad \le \int\limits_{\Omega}\,|{\nabla u}|^{p}\;d\mu+ \big(\frac{|{d-p}|}{p}\big)^{p-1}\,\textrm{sgn}(d-p)\,\int\limits_{\Omega}|{u}|^{p}\,\frac{(x^{t}Ax)^{p/2}}{|{x}|^{p}}\; d\mu \quad \quad \quad (1) \end{array}$$ holds with optimal Hardy constant ${\big(\frac{|d-p|}{p}\big)^{p}}$ for all ${u \in W^{1,p}_{\mu,0}(\Omega)}$ if the dimension d ≥ 2, 1 < p < d, and for all ${u \in W^{1,p}_{\mu,0}(\Omega{\setminus}\{0\})}$ if p > d ≥ 1. Here we assume that Ω is an open subset of ${\mathbb{R}^{d}}$ with ${0 \in \Omega}$ , A is a real d × d-symmetric positive definite matrix, c > 0, and $$ d \mu: = \rho(x) \,dx \qquad \textrm{with} \quad \rho(x) = c \cdot \exp(-\frac{1}{p}(x^{t}Ax)^{p/2}), \quad x \in\Omega.\quad \quad (2) $$ If p > d ≥ 1, then we can deduce from (1) a weighted Poincaré inequality on ${W^{1,p}_{\mu,0}(\Omega \setminus\{0\})}$ . Due to the optimality of the Hardy constant in (1), we can establish the nonexistence (locally in time) of positive weak solutions of a p-Kolmogorov parabolic equation perturbed by a singular potential in dimension d = 1, for 1 < p <  + ∞, and when Ω =  ]0, + ∞[.