Ground states and Dirichlet problems for \(-\Delta u=f(u)\) in \(R^ 2\) (Q1110720)

In an earlier paper [ibid. 93, 103-127 (1986; Zbl 0606.35029)] we considered the existence of solutions of the problem \[ (I)\quad -\Delta u=f(u),\quad u>0,\quad in\quad R^ N;\quad u(x)\to 0\quad as\quad | x| \to \infty \] in which f(u) is to be positive for large u, but not for all \(u>0\). Such solutions are sometimes called ``ground states'', a term borrowed from the physical context (nonlinear field equations) in which Problem I arises. Following in part the approach by \textit{H. Berestycki}, \textit{P. L. Lions} and the second author [Indiana Univ. Math. J. 30, 141-157 (1981; Zbl 0522.35036)], we used a ``shooting method'' (in place of variational arguments) to prove under suitable conditions the existence of such a ground state. The principal difficulty lay in showing that if u(0) were chosen sufficiently large, then the associated radially symmetric solution has a zero, i.e. that the Dirichlet problem on some finite ball had a solution. In the present paper we use the same approach to fill in a gap in our earlier treatment (loc. cit.) of the case \(N=2\), and to deal with some borderline cases corresponding to \[ \log f(u)=o(u^ 2)\quad as\quad u\to \infty. \]