Perturbation in a free boundary problem (Q1336162)

This paper is concerned with the Dirichlet boundary value problem for a semilinear elliptic partial differential equation with a discontinuous nonlinearity on the unit ball \(B\) in \(\mathbb{R}^2\). Precisely, the authors consider the problem for \(u\) with two positive parameters \(\lambda\) and \(\varepsilon\): \[ - \Delta u= (\lambda+ \varepsilon g(u)) H(u- 1)\quad\text{in }B,\;u= h\quad\text{on } \partial B, \] where \(H\) denotes the Heaviside function, and \(g\) and \(h\) are given functions. This problem is regarded as a free boundary problem, where the free boundary is the boundary of the set \(\{x|u(x)> 1\}\), dividing the domain \(B\) into two regions, where \(-\Delta u= \lambda+ \varepsilon g(u)\) or \(- \Delta u= 0\). When \(\varepsilon= 0\), \(h\equiv 0\), and \(\lambda> 4e\), there exist two explicit positive radial solutions whose free boundaries are circles. In this paper, by using the implicit function theorem the authors prove the existence of the solution when \(\lambda> 4e\) and \((h, \lambda, \varepsilon)\) is near \((0, \lambda, 0)\). The proof follows closely that of \textit{R. Alexander} [Math. Methods Appl. Sci. 4, 131-142 (1982; Zbl 0501.35078)].