Further study on the effect of boundary conditions (Q1890537)

The author is interested in existence, nonexistence and asymptotic behaviour for \(t\to \infty\) of least energy solutions \(w\) of the following boundary value problem: \[ - \Delta w= w^s- \lambda w,\;w>0\quad\text{in }\Omega,\;-{\partial w\over \partial \nu}+ tH(x) w= 0\quad\text{on }\partial\Omega.\tag{\(*\)} \] Here \(\Omega\subset \mathbb{R}^n\), \(n\geq 3\), \(\nu\) is the unit inner normal to \(\partial\Omega\) and \(H\) is the mean curvature of \(\partial\Omega\) (with respect to \(\nu\)). \(s= (n+ 2)/(n- 2)\) is the critical Sobolev exponent, \(\lambda\) and \(t\geq 0\) are constants. That \(w\) be a ``minimal'' solution to \((*)\) means that \(w\) minimizes the corresponding functional \[ {\int_\Omega \{|\nabla \varphi|^2+ \lambda\varphi^2\} dx+ t \int_{\partial\Omega} H(x) \varphi^2 dS(x)\over |\varphi|^2_{L^{s+ 1}}}. \] It turns out that \(t= (n- 2)/2\) is a critical value with respect to the existence of least energy solutions. In a previous work [Nonlinear Anal., Theory Methods Appl. 24, 195-222 (1995; Zbl 0826.35037)], the author shows that if either \(0\leq t< (n- 2)/2\) or \(t> (n- 2)/2\) and \(\min_{x\in \partial\Omega} H(x)< 0\), then \((*)\) has a least energy solution for \(\lambda\) large enough. In the present paper, the remaining cases are investigated. It is shown that if \(n> 4\) and \{either \(t= (n- 2)/2\) or \(t> (n- 2)/2\) and \(\min_{\partial\Omega} H\geq 0\}\), then there is a number \(\Lambda(t)\) such that \((*)\) has no least energy solution for \(\lambda> \Lambda(t)\). Moreover, for fixed \(\lambda\) the behaviour of \(w= w_{\lambda, t}\) (as long as it exists) for \(t\to \infty\) and the corresponding limiting boundary value problems are discussed. The results strongly depend on whether \(\min_{\partial\Omega} H(x)< 0\), \(= 0\) or \(> 0\), respectively.