Positive solutions for the Neumann \(p\)-Laplacian (Q1744075)

Let \(\Omega\subset {\mathbb R}^N\) be a bounded domain with smooth boundary. This paper is devoted to the refined qualitative analysis of positive solutions of the quasilinear elliptic problem \[ -\Delta_pu+\lambda u^{p-1}=f(x,u)\quad\text{in}\Omega, \] subject to the Neumann boundary condition \(\frac{\partial u}{\partial n}=0\) on \(\partial\Omega\). The main result of this paper establishes an exhaustive description of this problem. Two hypotheses are considered and, in both cases, the authors show that there exists \(\lambda_*>0\) such that the problem has no positive solutions if \(\lambda\in (0,\lambda_*)\) while positive solutions exist for values of \(\lambda\) larger than \(\lambda_*\). The proofs combine powerful topological, analytical and variational methods, including the nonlinear maximum principle, Picone's identity, and nonlinear regularity theory. The proofs are clear and the paper is very well organized. Examples illustrate the abstract content of the paper under review. The methods developed in this paper allow the mathematical analysis of other classes of nonlinear elliptic partial differential equations.