A variational approach to some boundary value problems in the half-line (Q1773915)

The paper is concerned with the study of the existence of solutions for two kinds of boundary value problems, for second-order differential equations on \([0,+ \infty[\). In the first kind of problems, the value of the solution at 0 is prescribed, while in the second kind, a homogeneous Neumann condition at 0 is imposed. In both cases, the solutions should vanish at \(+ \infty\). An important example of a problem of the first type is the model for determining the electric potential in an isolated neutral atom, the second kind of boundary value problems studied in this paper contains the problem of finding positive radial solutions of a certain type of semilinear elliptic equation in a ball or in the whole space \(\mathbb{R}^N\). Related results can be found in [\textit{H. Berestycki, P.-L. Lions} and \textit{L. A. Peletier}, Indiana Univ. Math. J. 30, 141--157 (1981; Zbl 0522.35036)] and in [\textit{J. B. McLeod}, Nonlinear Anal., Theory Methods Appl. 1, 679--689 (1977; Zbl 0383.34002)].