An existence result for a semilinear equation in some domains with unbounded boundary (Q1913386)

The author studies the semilinear elliptic Dirichlet-problem \[ - \Delta u+ \lambda u= |u|^{p- 1} u\quad \text{in } \Omega,\quad u= 0\quad \text{on } \partial \Omega,\tag{\(*\)} \] where \(\lambda> 0\), \(p\) is subcritical, and \(\Omega\) is an unbounded domain with possibly noncompact boundary. The main result is the existence of a positive solution for \((*)\) if \(\Omega\) is the complement of a thin domain \(\omega\) the capacity of which satisfies a suitable estimate. The proof uses a constrained minimization technique and a careful study of Palais-Smale sequences. The existence of \(k\) positive solutions for \((*)\) in a domain of the form \(\Omega= \mathbb{R}^N\backslash \bigcup^k_{i= 1} \omega_i\) is also proved.