Oscillation criteria for nonlinear second order elliptic differential equations (Q1909414)

The authors give some sufficient conditions for the oscillatory behavior of classical solutions of the second-order elliptic partial differential equation \[ \sum^n_{i, j= 1} D_i(A_{ij}(x) D_j y)+ p(x) f(y)= 0 \] is an exterior domain \(\Omega\subset \mathbb{R}^n\), \(n\geq 2\), where \(A_{ij}= A_{ji}\in C^{1+ \mu}_{\text{loc}}(\Omega)\) and \(p\in C^\mu_{\text{loc}}(\Omega)\) for some \(\mu\in (0, 1)\). The basic idea for the main result in the first part is the method of Riccati transformation developed by Noussair and Swanson. Applying this transformation to any positive solution of the equation above, the authors obtain a nonoscillatory solution of an associated ordinary differential equation of second order provided that \(f\in C(\mathbb{R})\cap C^1(\mathbb{R}\backslash \{0\})\) satisfies \(f(r)> 0\), \(f(- r)= - f(r)\), and \(f'(r)\geq \text{const}> 0\) for \(r> 0\). A sufficient oscillation criterion therefore is that the associated ODE is oscillatory. This generalizes a result of \textit{E. S. Noussair} and \textit{C. A. Swanson} [Can. J. Math. 32, 908-923 (1980; Zbl 0395.35027)]. The second part is devoted to the special case \(A_{ij}= \delta_{ij}\) and \(f(y)= |y|^\gamma \text{sign } y\) with \(\gamma\in (0, \infty)\), \(\gamma\neq 1\). Let \(p_m(r)\) denote the mean value of \(p\) over a sphere of radius \(r\geq r_0\) (\(r_0\) sufficiently large). Then for \(0< \gamma< 1\) it is proved that the equation \(\Delta y(x)+ p(x) |y|^\gamma \text{sign } y= 0\) is oscillatory for \(n= 2\) if \(\int^\infty r\log^\gamma rp_m(r) dr= \infty\) and for \(n\geq 3\) if \(\int^\infty rp_m(r) dr= \infty\). For \(\gamma> 1\), \(n= 2\) the same result is true if \(\liminf_{t\to \infty} {1\over t} \int^t_{r_0} {1\over r} \int^r_{r_0} \tau \log \tau p_m(\tau) d\tau dr> 0\).