Existence and nonexistence of positive solutions for singular semilinear elliptic boundary value problems (Q1570968)

The paper deals with the existence and nonexistence of positive solutions to the boundary value problem of the quasilinear elliptic equation \[ Lu+ f(x,u,Du)= 0,\quad u> 0\quad\text{in }\Omega,\quad u= \varphi\quad\text{on }\partial\Omega \] in the bounded domain \(\Omega\subset \mathbb{R}^n\). The operator \(L\) is a linear second-order strongly elliptic operator. The function \(\varphi\) is nonnegative. The function \(f(x,u,\xi)\) is locally Hölder continuous in \(\Omega\times (0,\infty)\times \mathbb{R}^n\), has singularities on the boundary and is continuously differentiable with respect to \(u\) and \(\xi\). For any \(\Omega_1\subset\Omega\) and any \(a< b\) there exists a constant \(C(\Omega_1, a,b)> 0\) such that \[ |f(x,u,\xi)|\leq C(1+ |\xi|^2),\quad \forall x\in\Omega,\quad u\in [a,b],\quad \xi\in \mathbb{R}^n. \] Further additional conditions are found under which the boundary problem has a classical positive solution: 1) as \(\varphi\in 0\), 2) as \(\varphi\in C^{1+\alpha}(\partial\Omega)\) is any nonnegative function, and 3) as the problem does not have a classical solution for any nonnegative \(\varphi\in C(\partial\Omega)\). As an example, the author considers the model boundary value problem \[ \Delta u+ a(x) u^p(1+|Du|^{2{q\over 2}})= 0\quad\text{in }\Omega,\quad u= 0\quad\text{on }\partial\Omega. \]