On a class of Kirchhoff type problems (Q2447676)

The authors study the existence of positive and nodal solutions for the following Kirchhoff-type problem: \[ \left(1+\lambda\int_{\mathbb{R}^3}(|\nabla u|^2+V(y)u^2)dy\right)[-\Delta u+V(x)u]=|u|^{p-2}u \] in \(\mathbb{R}^3\), where \(p\in (2,6)\), \(\lambda \in (0,\infty)\), and \(V\) is a continuous positive function such that the space \(H_V=\{u\in \mathcal{D}^{1,2}(\mathbb{R}^3): \int_{\mathbb{R}^3}V(x)u^2dx<\infty\}\), equipped with the norm \(\|u\|_V=(\int_{\mathbb{R}^3}(|\nabla u|^2+V(x)u^2)dx)^{\frac{1}{2}}\), is compactly embedded in \(H^1(\mathbb{R}^3)\). For \(p\in (2,4]\), the authors prove that the problem has no nonzero solution provided that \(\lambda>\lambda(p)\), where \(\lambda(p)\) is explicitly computed. Moreover, for \(p\in (2,4)\) (resp. \(p=4\)), the authors prove the existence of at least two (resp. one) positive solutions provided that \(\lambda\) is small enough. Finally, the existence of a least energy nodal solution, with exactly two nodal domains, is established for \(p\in (4,6)\) and \(\lambda>0\). Concerning the nodal solutions, the authors prove the following ``energy doubling property'': the energy corresponding to each nodal solution is strictly larger than two times the energy of the ground state solution. The proofs are based on variational methods.