Elliptic equations in \(R^ 2\) with nonlinearities in the critical growth range (Q1347262)

Two dimensional semilinear elliptic Dirichlet problems \((*)\) \(-\Delta u = f(x,u)\) in \(\Omega\), \(u |_{\partial \Omega} = 0\) are considered, where \(\Omega \subset \mathbb{R}^ 2\) is a bounded domain. Here \(f\) is of critical growth; as a byproduct, the authors also obtain results for subcritical \(f\). That \(f\) is of critical growth means that there is some \(\alpha_ 0 > 0\) such that \(\lim_{t \to \pm \infty} | f(x,t) | \exp (- \alpha t^ 2) = 0\) for \(\alpha > \alpha_ 0\) and \(\lim_{t \to \pm \infty} | f(x,t) | \exp (- \alpha t^ 2) = + \infty\) for \(\alpha < \alpha_ 0\). Beside some conditions concerning the superlinearity of \(f\), connections between \(f\) and its primitive \(F\) and the behaviour of \(F\) in comparison with the eigenvalues of \(- \Delta\) in \(H^ 1_ 0\), the crucial condition imposed on \(f\) is the following: \[ \lim_{t \to \infty} tf(x,t) \exp (-\alpha_ 0 t^ 2) \geq \beta, \] where \(\beta\) is a constant depending on \(\alpha_ 0\) and \(\Omega\). The existence of nontrivial weak solutions \(u \in H^ 1_ 0\) is shown by means of a (generalized) mountain pass lemma. As in the pioneering work of \textit{H. Brezis} and \textit{L. Nirenberg} [Commun. Pure Appl. Math. 36, 437-477 (1983; Zbl 0541.35029)] important features of the reasoning are a local Palais-Smale condition and an optimal embedding inequality. This inequality, which shows that for bounded \(\Omega \subset \mathbb{R}^ 2 : u \in H^ 1_ 0 (\Omega) \Rightarrow \exp (u^ 2) \in L^ 1 (\Omega)\), is due to \textit{N. S. Trudinger} [J. Math. Mech. 17, 473-484 (1967; Zbl 0163.364)] and \textit{J. Moser} [Indiana Univ. Math. J. 20, 1077-1092 (1971; Zbl 0213.130)]. The authors develop and generalize previous works of e.g. Adimurthi, Atkinson, Carleson, Chang, Peletier, Srikanth and Yadava.