Singular Dirichlet \((p, q)\)-equations (Q2039631)

The authors consider the following singular parametric \((p,q)\)-Laplacian Dirichlet problem \[ \begin{cases} -\Delta_p u-\Delta_q u=u^{-\eta}+\lambda f(x, u)&\text{in }\Omega,\\ u=0 &\text{on }\partial \Omega,\\ u>0,\ \lambda>0,\ 0<\eta<1,\ 1<q<p, \end{cases}\tag{1} \] where \(\Omega\) is a bounded domain in \(\mathbb{R}^N\) with a \(C^2\)-boundary \(\partial\Omega\) and \(f\) is a Carathéodory function with a \((p-1)\)-superlinear growth as \(s\to +\infty\). Applying variational tools from critical point theory along with suitable truncation and comparison techniques, the authors prove a bifurcation-type result for problem (1) describing the dependence of the set of positive solutions as the parameter \(\lambda > 0\) changes. Further, they show that problem (1) has a smallest positive solution \(u^*\) and investigate the monotonicity and continuity properties of the map \(\lambda \to u_\lambda^*\).