Weighted quasilinear eigenvalue problems in exterior domains (Q2349172): Difference between revisions

In this paper, the authors investigate the existence and the asymptotic properties of positive eigenfunctions of the following eigenvalue problem in the exterior domain: \[ \begin{cases} -\Delta_p u = \lambda K(x) | u| ^{p-2}u &\text{in}\; \;B_1^c,\\ u=0\;\;\, &\text{on}\; \;\partial B_1^c, \end{cases}\eqno{(1.1)} \] where \(\Delta_p\) is the \(p\)-Laplace operator defined for \(p > 1\), \(\lambda\) is a real number and \(K\) is a locally integrable function on \(B_1^c\) -- the exterior of the closed unit ball in \(R^N\) with \(N\geq 1\). The authors allow both \(1 < p < N\) and \(p\geq N\). The weight function \(K = K^+ - K^-\) is allowed to change its sign and may not be radial, however it is assumed to be dominated by a radial function that lies in a suitable weighted Lebesgue space. The authors look for weak solutions to the problem (1.1) in the Beppo-Levi space \(D^{1,p}_0 (B^c_1)\) defined as the completion of \(C^\infty_c (B^c_1 )\) with respect to the norm \(\| \nabla u \| _p := \left(\int_{B^c_1} | \nabla u(x)| ^p\,dx \right)^{\frac{1}{p}}\) and state the following first results. {Theorem 1.1} Let \(1 < p < \infty\) with \(p\not= N\) and let \( w\) be a positive function such that \[ w \in L^1((1,\infty ); r^{p-1}). \eqno{(1.2)} \] Let \(K \in L^1_{\mathrm{loc}}(B^c_1)\) be such that \(\text{\text{supp}}\,K^+\) is of nonzero measure and \(| K(x)| \leq w(| x| )\). Then \[ \lambda_1 = \inf\left\{\int_{B^c_1} | \nabla u(x)| ^p\,dx : u \in D^{1,p}_0(B^c_1), \int_{B^c_1} K(x)| u| ^p\, dx = 1 \right\} > 0 \] is a simple eigenvalue of (1.1). Furthermore, corresponding to \(\lambda_1\) there exists an eigenfunction which is positive a.e. in \(B^c_1\). For the case \(p = N\), the authors suppose that \(w \in L^1((1,\infty ); [r \log r]^{N-1})\) and obtain in {Theorem 1.2} the same result as in Theorem 1.1. The authors also prove the follwing regularity result. Theorem 1.3. Let \(1 < p < N\) and let \(K\) be as in Theorem 1.1. Let \(u \in D^{1,p}_0(B^c_1)\) be a positive weak solution of (1.1). If \(K\in L^\varrho(B^c_1)\) for some \(\varrho>\frac{N}{p}\), then \(u\in L^s(B^c_1)\) for \(p^*\leq s\leq \infty\). In the last section, the authors discuss the asymptotic properties of the eigenfunctions and for \(1 < p < N\) they obtain the following decay result. Theorem 1.4. Let \(1 < p < N\) and let \(K\) be as in Theorem 1.1. Let \(u \in D^{1,p}_0(B^c_1)\) be a positive eigenfunction of (1.1). If \(K\in L^{\varrho}(B_1^c)\) for some \(\varrho>\frac{N}{p}\), then \(u(x) \to 0\) uniformly with respect to \(x\) as \(| x| \to\infty\). In addition, if \(0 \leq K(x) \leq C_0 | x| ^{-l}\) for some \(C_0 > 0\) with \(l\geq N\), then there exist positive constants \(C_1,C_2\) such that \[ C_1| x| ^{\frac{-(N-p)}{(p-1)}}\leq | u(x)| \leq C_2| x| ^{\frac{-(N-p)}{(p-1)}} \quad\text{on}\;\; B_2^c. \] When \(p = N = 2\) for a class of radial weights, the authors show that the first eigenfunction is bounded away from zero at infinity. Theorem 1.5. Let \(p = N = 2\) and let \(K \in C^1(B^c_1 )\) be a positive radial function that satisfies the assumptions in Theorem 1.2. Then, any positive eigenfunction of (1.1) is radially increasing. In addition, if \(K = K(r )\) satisfies \[ \int_1^\infty r [\log r ]^2K(r )\, dr < \infty, \eqno{(1.4)} \] then \(u\) is bounded. The authors use a technique due to Edelson and Rumbos to prove the embedding of \(D^{1,p}_0(B^c_1)\) into \(L^p(B^c_1;w(| x| ))\) for \(w\) as in Theorem 1.1 and Theorem 1.2, and they also prove the compactness of this embedding using the Rellich-Kondrachov theorem and density arguments. To prove the existence of the first eigenvalue, the authors use the direct variational method.