Weighted quasilinear eigenvalue problems in exterior domains (Q2349172)

In this paper, the authors investigate the existence and the asymptotic properties of positive eigenfunctions of the following eigenvalue problem in the exterior domain: \[ \begin{cases} -\Delta_p u = \lambda K(x) | u| ^{p-2}u &\text{in}\; \;B_1^c,\\ u=0\;\;\, &\text{on}\; \;\partial B_1^c, \end{cases}\eqno{(1.1)} \] where \(\Delta_p\) is the \(p\)-Laplace operator defined for \(p > 1\), \(\lambda\) is a real number and \(K\) is a locally integrable function on \(B_1^c\) -- the exterior of the closed unit ball in \(R^N\) with \(N\geq 1\). The authors allow both \(1 < p < N\) and \(p\geq N\). The weight function \(K = K^+ - K^-\) is allowed to change its sign and may not be radial, however it is assumed to be dominated by a radial function that lies in a suitable weighted Lebesgue space. The authors look for weak solutions to the problem (1.1) in the Beppo-Levi space \(D^{1,p}_0 (B^c_1)\) defined as the completion of \(C^\infty_c (B^c_1 )\) with respect to the norm \(\| \nabla u \| _p := \left(\int_{B^c_1} | \nabla u(x)| ^p\,dx \right)^{\frac{1}{p}}\) and state the following first results. {Theorem 1.1} Let \(1 < p < \infty\) with \(p\not= N\) and let \( w\) be a positive function such that \[ w \in L^1((1,\infty ); r^{p-1}). \eqno{(1.2)} \] Let \(K \in L^1_{\mathrm{loc}}(B^c_1)\) be such that \(\text{\text{supp}}\,K^+\) is of nonzero measure and \(| K(x)| \leq w(| x| )\). Then \[ \lambda_1 = \inf\left\{\int_{B^c_1} | \nabla u(x)| ^p\,dx : u \in D^{1,p}_0(B^c_1), \int_{B^c_1} K(x)| u| ^p\, dx = 1 \right\} > 0 \] is a simple eigenvalue of (1.1). Furthermore, corresponding to \(\lambda_1\) there exists an eigenfunction which is positive a.e. in \(B^c_1\). For the case \(p = N\), the authors suppose that \(w \in L^1((1,\infty ); [r \log r]^{N-1})\) and obtain in {Theorem 1.2} the same result as in Theorem 1.1. The authors also prove the follwing regularity result. Theorem 1.3. Let \(1 < p < N\) and let \(K\) be as in Theorem 1.1. Let \(u \in D^{1,p}_0(B^c_1)\) be a positive weak solution of (1.1). If \(K\in L^\varrho(B^c_1)\) for some \(\varrho>\frac{N}{p}\), then \(u\in L^s(B^c_1)\) for \(p^*\leq s\leq \infty\). In the last section, the authors discuss the asymptotic properties of the eigenfunctions and for \(1 < p < N\) they obtain the following decay result. Theorem 1.4. Let \(1 < p < N\) and let \(K\) be as in Theorem 1.1. Let \(u \in D^{1,p}_0(B^c_1)\) be a positive eigenfunction of (1.1). If \(K\in L^{\varrho}(B_1^c)\) for some \(\varrho>\frac{N}{p}\), then \(u(x) \to 0\) uniformly with respect to \(x\) as \(| x| \to\infty\). In addition, if \(0 \leq K(x) \leq C_0 | x| ^{-l}\) for some \(C_0 > 0\) with \(l\geq N\), then there exist positive constants \(C_1,C_2\) such that \[ C_1| x| ^{\frac{-(N-p)}{(p-1)}}\leq | u(x)| \leq C_2| x| ^{\frac{-(N-p)}{(p-1)}} \quad\text{on}\;\; B_2^c. \] When \(p = N = 2\) for a class of radial weights, the authors show that the first eigenfunction is bounded away from zero at infinity. Theorem 1.5. Let \(p = N = 2\) and let \(K \in C^1(B^c_1 )\) be a positive radial function that satisfies the assumptions in Theorem 1.2. Then, any positive eigenfunction of (1.1) is radially increasing. In addition, if \(K = K(r )\) satisfies \[ \int_1^\infty r [\log r ]^2K(r )\, dr < \infty, \eqno{(1.4)} \] then \(u\) is bounded. The authors use a technique due to Edelson and Rumbos to prove the embedding of \(D^{1,p}_0(B^c_1)\) into \(L^p(B^c_1;w(| x| ))\) for \(w\) as in Theorem 1.1 and Theorem 1.2, and they also prove the compactness of this embedding using the Rellich-Kondrachov theorem and density arguments. To prove the existence of the first eigenvalue, the authors use the direct variational method.