Ground state alternative for p-Laplacian with potential term

Let Ω be a domain in , d ≥ 2, and 1 < p < ∞. Fix . Consider the functional Q and its Gateaux derivative Q′ given by If Q ≥ 0 on, then either there is a positive continuous function W such that for all, or there is a sequence and a function v > 0 satisfying Q′ (v) = 0, such that Q(u _k ) → 0, and in . In the latter case, v is (up to a multiplicative constant) the unique positive supersolution of the equation Q′ (u) = 0 in Ω, and one has for Q an inequality of Poincaré type: there exists a positive continuous function W such that for every satisfying there exists a constant C > 0 such that . As a consequence, we prove positivity properties for the quasilinear operator Q′ that are known to hold for general subcritical resp. critical second-order linear elliptic operators.