Perturbations of nonlinear eigenvalue problems (Q1733910)

Given a bounded domain $\Omega\subseteq \mathbb{R}^N$ with a $C^2$-boundary $\partial\Omega$, the authors study the existence of weak solutions of the following nonlinear nonhomogeneous parametric Robin problem \[ \begin{cases} -\operatorname{div} a(D u(z))+\xi(z)u(z)^{p-1}=\lambda u(z)^{p-1}+f(z,u(z)) &\text{in }\Omega,\\ \frac{\partial u}{\partial n_a}+\beta(z)u^{p-1}=0 &\text{on }\partial \Omega, \\ u>0, \ 1<p<\infty, \end{cases} \] where $-\operatorname{div}a(D(\cdot))$ is a nonhomogeneous operator described by the map $a:\mathbb{R}^N\to\mathbb{R}^N$ which is continuous, strictly monotone and satisifies some other regularity and growth conditions, the potential function $\xi \in L^\infty(\Omega)$ is indefinite, that is, sign changing and $\beta \in C^{0,\alpha}(\partial\Omega)$ with $\alpha \in (0,1)$ and $\beta(z)\geq 0$ for all $z \in \partial \Omega$. Moreover, the parameter $\lambda$ is positive and to be specified and the nonlinearity $f:\Omega\times \mathbb{R}\to\mathbb{R}$ is a Carathéodory function. \par The authors consider both the sublinear and the superlinear case concerning $f$ and determine how the set of positive solutions changes as the real parameter $\lambda$ varies. In addition, it is shown that there exists a minimal positive solution $\overline{u}_\lambda$ and the monotonicity and continuity properties of the map $\lambda \mapsto \overline{u}_\lambda$ are studied as well.