A unique solution to a nonlinear elliptic equation

The purpose of this paper is to prove the existence of a unique, classical solution to the nonlinear elliptic partial differential equation −∇⋅(a(u(x))∇u(x))=f(x) under periodic boundary conditions, where u(x₀)=u₀ at x₀∈Ω, with Ω=TN, the N-dimensional torus, and N=2,3. The function a is assumed to be smooth, and a(u(x))>0 for , where G⊂R is a bounded interval. We prove that if the functions f and a satisfy certain conditions, then a unique classical solution u exists. The range of the solution u is a subset of a specified interval . Applications of this work include stationary heat/diffusion problems with a source/sink, where the value of the solution is known at a spatial location x₀.