Existence and multiplicity of solutions of semilinear elliptic equations in \(\mathbb{R}^N\) (Q1590383)

The paper is concerned with the existence of solutions of the equation \[ -\Delta u+b(x)u=f(x,u),\quad x\in\mathbb{R}^n\tag{1} \] in general and the case \(f(x,u) = a(x)|u|^{p-1}u\) in particular. Here \(a\) and \(f\) are continuous and \(b\) is continuously differentiable. The goal is to extend previous results of Rabinowitz and Bartsch \& Wang who proved that the given equation has a positive solution if \[ \inf_{x\in\mathbb{R}^n}b(x) > 0\tag{2} \] and the set \[ \{x\in\mathbb{R}^n\mid b(x) < M\}\text{ has finite Lebesgue measure for every }M.\tag{3} \] The hypotheses are weakened as follows. First, (3) is replaced with necessary and sufficient conditions on \(b\) which guarantee the existence of a positive solution. Second, (2) is weakened to allow functions \(b\) which are negative-valued subject to specified constraints. Finally, the function \(f\) is allowed to be unbounded in \(x\) provided its growth is controlled by the growth of \(b\). The proofs are based on conditions for which the standard functional associated with (1) satisfies the Palais-Smale condition on the Hilbert space with \[ \|u\|^2_H=\int_{\mathbb{R}^n}[|\nabla u |^2 +b(x)u^2]dx. \]