On a jumping problem for quasilinear elliptic equations (Q1374737)

In a simply connected region \(\Omega\subset\mathbb{R}^n(n\geq 3)\) the boundary problem \[ \begin{aligned} &L(x,u,Du)=-\sum^n_{i,j=1} D_j\bigl(a_{ij} (x,u)D_i u\bigr) +{1 \over 2}\sum^n_{i,j=1} D_sa_{ij}(x,u) D_iuD_ju =g(x,u)+ \omega,\\ & u=0 \text{ on }\partial \Omega\end{aligned} \] is considered, where \(\omega\in H^{-1}(\Omega)\); \[ \begin{aligned} & a_{ij}(x,s)=a_{ji}(x,s),\;\bigl|a_{ij}(x,s) \bigr|\leq C,\;\bigl|D_sa_{ij}(x,s) \bigr|\leq C,\;(C>0);\\ & \sum^n_{i,j=1} a_{ij} (x,s)\xi_i \xi_j\geq \nu|\xi|^2,\;\nu>0;\\ & \sum^n_{i,j=1} sD_sa_{ij} (x,s)\xi_i \xi_j\geq 0;\\ & \sum^n_{i,j=1} sD_sa_{ij} (x,s)\xi_i\xi_j\leq 2sQ'(s) \sum^n_{i,j=1} a_{ij}(x,s) \xi_i\xi_j \end{aligned} \] with \(Q:\mathbb{R}\to[0,+\infty)\) a uniformly Lipschitz continuous bounded function. For \(g:\Omega \times\mathbb{R} \to \mathbb{R}\) it is assumed \[ \bigl|g(x,s) \bigr|\leq a(x) +b(x)|s| \] with \(a\in L^{2n\over n+2} (\Omega)\), \(b\in L^{n\over 2}(\Omega)\) and \[ \lim_{s \to-\infty} {g(x,s)\over s}= \alpha,\quad \lim_{s\to+ \infty}{g(x,s) \over s}= \beta. \] Setting \[ A^+_{ij}(x)= \lim_{s\to\infty} a_{ij}(x,s), \quad A^-_{ij} (x)= \lim_{s\to- \infty} a_{ij}(x,s), \] \(\lambda_k\) (respectively \(\widetilde \lambda_k)\) denote the eigenvalues of the operator \(-\sum D_j(A^+_{ij} D_iu)\) (respectively \(-\sum{D_j (A^-_{ij} D_iu))}\) with homogeneous Dirichlet condition. Let \(\varphi_1\) (respectively \(\widetilde\varphi_i)\) be a nonnegative eigenfunction corresponding to \(\lambda_1\) (respectively \(\widehat \lambda_1)\) and \(\alpha> \widetilde \lambda_1\), \(\beta< \lambda_1\) then the author shows that there exists \(\widehat t\in\mathbb{R}\) such that for all \(t> \widehat t\) the equation \[ L(x,u,Du)=g(x,u)+t\varphi_1+\omega \] has at least two weak solutions in \(H^1_0(\Omega)\) and that there exists a \(\widetilde t\in\mathbb{R}\) such that the equation \[ L(x,u,Du)= g(x,u)+ t\widetilde \varphi_1+ \omega \] has no weak solution in \(H^1_0(\Omega)\).