On the multiplicity of positive solutions for \(p\)-Laplace equations via Morse theory (Q1039758)

Let \(\Omega\) be a bounded domain in \({\mathbb R}^N\) with smooth boundary. Assume that \(p\) is a real number such that \(p<N\) and \(2\leq p<Np/(N-p)\). This paper is concerned with the study of positive solutions to the quasilinear elliptic equation \(-\varepsilon^p\Delta_pu+u^{p-1}=f(u)\) in \(\Omega\) subject to the Dirichlet condition \(u=0\) on \(\partial\Omega\), where \(\varepsilon\) is a positive number. The nonlinearity \(f\) is assumed to have a subcritical growth in the sense of Sobolev. The main result of the present paper establishes that there exists \(\varepsilon^*>0\) such that the above problem has at least \(2{\mathcal P}_1(\Omega)-1\) solutions provided \(\varepsilon\in (0,\varepsilon^*)\), where \({\mathcal P}_1(\Omega)\) denotes the Poincaré polynomial of \(\Omega\). The proof combines variational arguments especially relying on the Morse theory with techniques related to Alexandrov-Spanier relative cohomology groups.