Nodal solutions of nonlinear elliptic Dirichlet problems on radial domains (Q2504829)

Let \(\Omega\) be a bounded domain in the \(N\)-Euclidean space and assume that \(f\) is a continuous real-valued function such that \(f(0)=0\) and having a superlinear and subcritical growth at infinity. In the first part of the present paper the authors study the nonlinear elliptic equation \(-\Delta u=f(u)\) under the Dirichlet boundary condition \(u=0\) on \(\partial\Omega\). Their main result asserts that the least energy nodal solution of this problem is not radial. Next, the authors are concerned with the linear problem \(-\Delta u=\lambda u^+-\mu u^-\) in \(\Omega\), \(u\in H^1_0(\Omega )\). It is established that the solutions of this problem (that is, Fučik eigenfunctions) are not radial, provided the eigenvalue \((\lambda ,\mu )\) is on the first nontrivial curve of the Fučik spectrum. The proofs rely on refined estimates on critical groups and the Morse index for \(C^1\)-functionals, combined with an original quadratic form that generalizes the Hessian of an energy functional at a solution.