Asymptotically linear elliptic boundary value problems (Q1321534)

This paper is concerned with the investigation of semilinear elliptic problems of the form (E) \(Ax = f(x,u)\), \(x \in \Omega\), where \(\Omega \subset \mathbb{R}^n\) is a smooth bounded domain, \(A\) is a linear elliptic operator and \(f(x,t)\) is a Caratheodory function satisfying the condition (C) \(f(x,t)/t \to \alpha_\pm (x)\) as \(t \to \pm \infty\). The main goal of the investigation is to explore the situation when the size of the interval \((\alpha_-, \alpha_+)\) is not restricted, nor is the number of eigenvalues of \(A\) contained in this interval. The paper contains three main theorems and several auxiliary results. Besides condition (C) on \(f(x,t)\) one assumes, for instance, that \(|f(x,t) |\leq K |t |+ E(x)\), with \(K\) a positive constant and \(E(x)\) an \(L^2\)-function in \(\Omega\). Other estimates for \(f(x,t)\) are also considered. If in (C) the limit exists uniformly in \(x\), and a certain relationship holds true for \(\alpha_-\) and \(\alpha_+\), then (E) has at least one solution for \(A = - \Delta\). The method of proof for the existence of at least one solution to (E) is based on three saddle point theorems recently obtained by the author [Nonlinearity 6, 417-427 (1993; Zbl 0779.58010) and preprints].