On the existence of positive solutions of nonlinear elliptic equations -- a probabilistic potential theory approach (Q1210403)

We study the existence of solutions to the problem \[ \begin{cases} \Delta u+K(x) f(u)=0 \quad & \text{ in } D \\ u>0 & \text{ in } D \\ u=0 & \text{ on } \partial D. \end{cases} \tag{I} \] Our goal is to prove an existence theorem for problem (I) in a general setting by using Brownian path integration method and the potential theory. The following is the main result. Let \(D\) be an unbounded domain in \(\mathbb{R}^ d\) \((d \geq 3)\) with a compact Lipschitz boundary. Suppose that \(f(w)\) is a continuous function in \((0,b)\) for some \(0<b \leq \infty\) satisfying \[ \lim_{w \to 0^ +} {f(w) \over w}=0, \] and \(K(x)\) is a Borel measurable function in \(D\) satisfying that \[ \text{the family } \left\{ {K(\cdot) \over | \cdot -\xi |^{d-2}} \right\} \text{ is uniformly integrable} \] over \(D\) with the parameter \(\xi \in D\). Then there exists \(0<b_ 0<b\), such that for each \(c \in (0,b_ 0]\) there exists a solution \(u\) of (I) satisfying \(\lim_{| x | \to \infty} u(x)=c\).