Finiteness and positivity results for global minimizers of a semilinear elliptic problem (Q1268411)

The authors investigate generalizations of the functional \[ F_\varepsilon(\varphi):= \int_\Omega (\varepsilon| \delta\varphi|^2+ \varepsilon^{-1} W(\varphi)- u\varphi)dx,\quad \varphi\in H^{1,2}(\Omega), \] where \(W(t)= (t^2- 1)^2\) and \(\Omega\) is a bounded domain in \(\mathbb{R}^N\), \(N\leq 3\). They show that there are only finitely many global minimizers although the corresponding Euler-Lagrange equations may admit an infinity of solutions. Furthermore, they show that the global minimizers \(\varphi\), \(\psi\) are ``pointwise ordered'' on components \(\Omega_i\) of \(\Omega\) i.e. either \(\varphi< \psi\) or \(\varphi= \psi\) or \(\varphi> \psi\) on \(\Omega_i\). A main tool is the positive semi-definiteness of the second variation at global minimizer. In the one-dimensional case the question of definiteness is also investigated.