Extinction and blowup of positive radial solutions for a semilinear elliptic equation (Q1961267)

The paper considers positive radial solutions of the semilinear elliptic equation \(\Delta u+Ku^p=0\) in \(\mathbb{R}^n\), where \(n>0\), \(p>1\) is a parameter and \(K=K(|x|,p)\geq 0\). For positive radial solutions \(u=u(|x|)>0\), it is standard to study the initial value problem \[ (r^{n-1}u_r)_r+r^{n-1} K(r,p)(u^+)^p=0,\quad r>0, \qquad u(0)=\alpha>0, \] where \(r=|x|\) and \(u^+=\max\{u,0\}\). The solution \(u(r)\) is said to be a rapidly decaying solution if \(u(r)>0\) on \([0,\infty)\) and \(r^{n-2}u(r)\to\beta\) as \(r\to\infty\) for some \(\beta\in(0,\infty)\). In a previous paper of the present author with \textit{S. Yotsutani} [Arch. Ration. Mech. Anal. 134, No. 3, 199-226 (1996; Zbl 0862.35007)] the structure of the rapidly decaying solutions in \((\alpha,p)\)-space is investigated under the condition that \(rK_r/K\) is nonincreasing in \(r\) for every \(p>1\). It is shown that for each \(p>1\) there exists at most one rapidly decaying solution. Then there exists a function \(\alpha_0(p)\) such that \(u(r,\alpha_0(p),p)\) becomes a rapidly decaying solution. One of the observed features is that the function \(\alpha_0(p)\) may tend to \(0\) or \(\infty\) as the parameter \(p\) varies. The present paper investigates such phenomena in a more general setting. The concepts of an extinction point and a blowup point are defined as follows. The point \(p_*>1\) is an extinction point if there exists a sequence \(\{(\alpha_i,p_i)\}\) with \(\alpha_i>0\) and \(p_i>1\) such that (i) \(u(r,\alpha_i,p_i)\) is a rapidly decaying solution for every \(i\), (ii) \(p_i\to p_*\) as \(i\to\infty\), (iii) \(\alpha_i\to 0\) as \(i\to\infty\). The point \(p^*>1\) is a blowup point if there exists a sequence \(\{(\alpha_i,p_i)\}\) with \(\alpha_i>0\) and \(p_i>1\) such that (i) \(u(r,\alpha_i,p_i)\) is a rapidly decaying solution for every \(i\), (ii) \(p_i\to p^*\) as \(i\to\infty\), (iii) \(\alpha_i\to\infty\) as \(i\to\infty\). The paper studies the location of extinction and blowup points.