Further study on the effect of boundary conditions (Q1890537): Difference between revisions

The author is interested in existence, nonexistence and asymptotic behaviour for \(t\to \infty\) of least energy solutions \(w\) of the following boundary value problem: \[ - \Delta w= w^s- \lambda w,\;w>0\quad\text{in }\Omega,\;-{\partial w\over \partial \nu}+ tH(x) w= 0\quad\text{on }\partial\Omega.\tag{\(*\)} \] Here \(\Omega\subset \mathbb{R}^n\), \(n\geq 3\), \(\nu\) is the unit inner normal to \(\partial\Omega\) and \(H\) is the mean curvature of \(\partial\Omega\) (with respect to \(\nu\)). \(s= (n+ 2)/(n- 2)\) is the critical Sobolev exponent, \(\lambda\) and \(t\geq 0\) are constants. That \(w\) be a ``minimal'' solution to \((*)\) means that \(w\) minimizes the corresponding functional \[ {\int_\Omega \{|\nabla \varphi|^2+ \lambda\varphi^2\} dx+ t \int_{\partial\Omega} H(x) \varphi^2 dS(x)\over |\varphi|^2_{L^{s+ 1}}}. \] It turns out that \(t= (n- 2)/2\) is a critical value with respect to the existence of least energy solutions. In a previous work [Nonlinear Anal., Theory Methods Appl. 24, 195-222 (1995; Zbl 0826.35037)], the author shows that if either \(0\leq t< (n- 2)/2\) or \(t> (n- 2)/2\) and \(\min_{x\in \partial\Omega} H(x)< 0\), then \((*)\) has a least energy solution for \(\lambda\) large enough. In the present paper, the remaining cases are investigated. It is shown that if \(n> 4\) and \{either \(t= (n- 2)/2\) or \(t> (n- 2)/2\) and \(\min_{\partial\Omega} H\geq 0\}\), then there is a number \(\Lambda(t)\) such that \((*)\) has no least energy solution for \(\lambda> \Lambda(t)\). Moreover, for fixed \(\lambda\) the behaviour of \(w= w_{\lambda, t}\) (as long as it exists) for \(t\to \infty\) and the corresponding limiting boundary value problems are discussed. The results strongly depend on whether \(\min_{\partial\Omega} H(x)< 0\), \(= 0\) or \(> 0\), respectively.