Multiplicity of positive solutions for some quasilinear elliptic equations in \(\mathbb{R}^N\) with critical Sobolev exponent (Q1370988)

The authors study the equation \[ - \Delta_{p}u=\lambda g(x) | u|^{p-2}u+f(x) | u|^{p*-2}u \tag{1} \] in \({\mathbb{R}}^{N}\), where \(1<p<N\) and \(p*=Np(N-p)\) is the critical Sobolev exponent. Let \(\lambda^{+}_{1}>0\) be the principal eigenvalue of \[ - \Delta_{p}u=\lambda g(x) | u|^{p-2}u\quad\text{in}\quad{\mathbb{R}}^{N},\quad \int_{{\mathbb{R}}^{N}}g(x) | u|^{p} >0 \tag{2} \] with \(u^{+}_{1}>0\) the associated eigenfunction. They prove that: (i) Equation (1) has at least one positive solution if \(\lambda \in (0, \lambda^{+}_{1})\). (ii) If moreover \(f_{{\mathbb{R}}^{N}}\int (x) (u^{+}_{1})^{p*} <0\), then there exists \(\lambda_{0}> \lambda^{+}_{1}\) such that (1) has at least one positive solution for \(\lambda \in [\lambda^{+}_{1}, \lambda_{0})\). Moreover, if \(p\geq 2\), there exists \(\tilde\lambda_{0} > \lambda^{+}_{1}\) such that (1) has at least two positive solutions for \(\lambda \in (\lambda^{+}_{1},\tilde\lambda_{0})\). This extends earlier papers by the same authors where the non-critical case was studied.