Linking over cones and nontrivial solutions for \(p\)-Laplace equations with \(p\)-superlinear nonlinearity (Q2475797)

Let \(\Omega\) be a bounded open set in \(\mathbb R^n\) and assume that \(1<p<\infty\). The authors are concerned with the study of the quasilinear elliptic equation \(-\Delta_pu=\lambda V| u| ^{p-2}u+g(x,u)\) in \(\Omega\), subject to the Dirichlet boundary condition \(u=0\) on \(\partial\Omega\). It is assumed that \(V\) is a bounded potential and \(g\) is a continuous nonlinearity with subcritical and \(p\)-superlinear growth. The main result of this paper establishes that each \(\lambda_m\) satisfying \(\lambda_m<\lambda_{m+1}\) induces a generalized linking structure with respect to some well-defined cones, where \(\lambda_m\) is defined by \[ \lambda_m=\inf\left\{\sup_{u\in A}\int_\Omega | \nabla u| ^p\,dx;\;A\subset M,\;A \text{ is symmetric and Index}(A)\geq m\right\}. \] The proof relies on refined minimization techniques, without any restriction on \(\lambda\).