Existence of positive solutions for semilinear elliptic equations in annular domains (Q1328924)

It is provided a unified presentation of some previous results due to different authors about the existence of radial positive solutions for semilinear elliptic equations in annular domains. More precisely, the authors consider the problem \(\Delta u+ f(| x|,u)=0\), \(0< r<| x|< R\), \(u=0\), \(| x|= r, R\), where \(f: [r,R]\times \mathbb{R}\to \mathbb{R}\) is a continuous function. The results are obtained studying the ordinary boundary value problem \(u''+ a(t)u'+ b(t)| u'|+ f(t,u)=0\), \(r< t< R\), \(u(r)= u(R)= 0\) for continuous functions \(a\) and \(b\). A novelty of the paper is that the superlinearity condition \(\lim_{u\to 0} {f(t,u)\over u}= 0\) is replaced by the weaker one \[ \liminf_{u\to 0} {\int^ u f(t,s) ds\over u^ 2}= 0. \] The main tools used in the proofs are some fixed point theorems for completely continuous operators, positive with respect to a cone in a Banach space, like Krasnosel'skij-type expansion and compression theorems.