Multiple solutions for a BVP on \((0,+\infty)\) via Morse theory and \(H^1_{0,p}(\mathbb{R}^+)\) versus \(C^1_{p}(\mathbb{R}^+)\) local minimizers (Q5964838)

The authors are concerned with the following second-order BVP \[ \begin{aligned} -(p(t)u'(t))' = f (t, u(t)),\quad t > 0, \\ u(0) = u(+\infty ) = 0.\end{aligned} \eqno{(1)} \] They assume that the function \(f : [0,+\infty ) \times \mathbb{R} \to \mathbb{R}\) is continuous and there exists a function \(q :(0,+\infty ) \to \mathbb{R}\) such that \(\frac{1}{q} \in L^1(0,+\infty )\) and \(q(\cdot ) f (\cdot , \cdot )\) sends \(\mathbb{R}^+\times B(\mathbb{R})\) into \(B(\mathbb{R})\). \(B(\mathbb{R})\) stands for the set of all bounded subsets of \(\mathbb{R}\). Moreover, \(f\) satisfies the sign condition \(f (t, u)u \geq 0\), for all \((t, u) \in (0,+\infty )\times \mathbb{R}\). The weight function \(p : (0,+\infty ) \to (0,+\infty )\) is such that \(\frac{1}{p}\in L^1(0,+\infty )\) and \[ M_1 = \int^{+\infty}_0 \left(\int^{+\infty}_t \frac{ds}{p(s)}\right) \, dt < \infty . \eqno{(2)} \] The authors show the existence of at least three nonzero solutions to problem (1), two of which having constant signs. The main existence result of this paper is {Theorem 1.1} Suppose that {\parindent=6mm \begin{itemize} \item[(] There exist \(\tau \in (1, 2), \theta \in (1,+\infty )\) and positive functions \(c_0, c_1 \in L^1(0,+\infty )\) such that \[ F(t, u) \geq c_0(t)|u|^\tau - c_1(t)|u|^{\theta +1}\quad\text{for all } t \in [0,+\infty )\quad\text{and all } u \in \mathbb{R}, \] where \(F(t, u) =\int^u_0 f(t, v)\, dv.\) \item [(] There exist \(\delta > 0\) and a positive function \(c_2 \in L^1(0,+\infty )\) such that \[ \left| F(t, u) - \frac{1}{\tau} f(t,u)u \right| \leq c_2(t)|u|^{\theta +1}\quad\text{for all } t \in [0,+\infty )\quad\text{and all } |u| \leq \delta , \] where \(\theta\) is that introduced in (\(H_1\)). \item [(] There exist two positive functions \(a, b \in L^1(0,+\infty )\) such that \[ | f (t, u)| \leq a(t)|u| + b(t)\quad\text{for all } (t, u) \in [0,+\infty ) \times \mathbb{R} \] with \[ M_2 =\int^{+\infty}_0 a(t)\left( \int^{+\infty}_t \frac{ds}{p(s)}\right) dt < 1. \] Then problem (1) has at least three nontrivial solutions. \end{itemize}} To prove these theorems, the authors use Morse theory and \(H^1_{0,p}\) versus \(C^1_p(\mathbb{R}^+)\) local minimizers.