Positive solutions of semilinear elliptic problems in exterior domains (Q1313489)

The author studies positive solutions of the homogeneous Dirichlet problem for the equation \(-\Delta u+ u=\lambda f(u+\varphi)\) in the exterior domain \(\Omega \subset\mathbb{R}^ N\), where \(\varphi\in C^ \alpha (\overline{\Omega}) \cap L^ 2(\Omega)\), \(\varphi\geq 0\), \(\varphi(x) \to 0\) as \(| x| \to\infty\) and \(f: \mathbb{R}^ +\to \mathbb{R}^ +\) is a function which ``behaves'' like \(u^ p\) with \(1<p< (N+2)/ (N-2)\). He shows that there exists \(\lambda^*\in (0,\infty)\) such that the problem has (at least) two solutions \(u(\lambda)< U(\lambda)\) for \(\lambda\in (0,\lambda^*)\), exactly one solution for \(\lambda= \lambda^*\) and no solutions for \(\lambda> \lambda^*\). The solutions \(u(\lambda)\) are minimal positive solutions and tend to zero as \(\lambda\to 0+\); the solutions \(U(\lambda)\) are obtained by the mountain pass theorem and their norms tend to infinity as \(\lambda\to 0+\).