On the existence of positive solutions for semilinear elliptic equations with indefinite nonlinearities (Q2483925)

The authors study the semilinear elliptic problem \[ \left\{ \begin{alignedat}{2} &{-\Delta{u}}+q(\cdot)u-\lambda\psi(\cdot,u)u=\varphi(\cdot,u)u&&\qquad\text{in }\Omega,\\ &u>0&&\qquad\text{in }\Omega,\\ &u=0&&\qquad\text{on }\partial{\Omega}, \end{alignedat} \right. \] where \(\lambda\) is a real parameter, \(\Omega\) is a regular bounded domain in \(\mathbb{R}^d\), \(d\in\mathbb{N}\), and \(u\) is the solution, understood as distributional. The functions \(\varphi\) and \(\psi\) are Carathéodory functions on \(\Omega\times\mathbb{R}^+\), and \(q\), \(\varphi\), \(\psi\) are supposed to be locally in the Kato class. The function \(\varphi\) may change its sign (indefinite weight). Let \(\lambda_1\) be the principal eigenvalue of the linear problem \[ \left\{ \begin{alignedat}{2} &{-\Delta{u}}+q(\cdot)u-\lambda\psi(\cdot,0)u=0&&\qquad\text{in }\Omega,\\ &u>0&&\qquad\text{in }\Omega,\\ &u=0&&\qquad\text{on }\partial{\Omega}. \end{alignedat} \right. \] Under several restrictions on \(q\), \(\varphi\), \(\psi\), the authors prove that there exists \(\lambda^*>\lambda_1\) such that for any \(\lambda\in(\lambda_1,\lambda^*)\), the investigated problem has a positive solution, while there is no positive solution for \(\lambda>\lambda^*\). The main tools used in the proof are the method of super- and subsolutions, the Green function and several recent results concerning the functions which are locally in the Kato class.