A family of sharp inequalities for Sobolev functions. (Q1413027)

Let \(2^*= 2N/(N-2)\), \(2^b= 2N/(N-1)\), \(2^\#= 2(N-1)/(N-2)\), \[ S= \inf\Biggl\{ \int_{\mathbb{R}^N}|\nabla u|^2: u\in L^{2^*}(\mathbb{R}^N),\, \nabla u\in L^2(\mathbb{R}^N),\, \int_{\mathbb{R}^N}| u|^{2^*}= 1\Biggr\} \] and \(\| u\|^2=|\nabla u|^2_2+| u|^2_2\cdot a\). We consider the functionals \(\Psi_\alpha: H^1\setminus\{0\}\to \mathbb{R}\) defined by \[ \Psi_\alpha(u)= {\| u\|^2\over| u|^2_{2^*}}+ {| u|^2_{2^b}\over| u|^2_{2^*}}. \] In this paper, the following main result is proved (Theorem 2.2): Let \(N\geq 5\), \(\Omega\) be a smooth bounded domain in \(\mathbb{R}^N\), \(a> 0\), \(\alpha\geq 0\) and \(2^b\leq q\leq 2^\#\). Then there exists a positive real number \(\alpha_0= \alpha_0(q,a,\Omega)\) such that (i) if \(\alpha< \alpha_0\), then \(\Psi_\alpha\) has a least energy critical point \(u_\alpha\); \(\Psi_\alpha(u_\alpha)< S/(2^{2/N})\); (ii) if \(\alpha>\alpha_0\), then \(\Psi_\alpha\) does not have a least energy critical point and \(S/(2^{2/N})= \inf_{H^1(\Omega)\setminus\{0\}}\Psi_\alpha\).