On multiplicity of positive solutions for nonlocal equations with critical nonlinearity (Q2183457)

In this paper, the existence of positive solutions is studied for the following fractional elliptic equation with critical nonlinearity: \[ (-\Delta)^s u = a(x)|u|^{2^*_s-2} u + f(x) \text{ in } \mathbb{R}^N, u \in \dot{H}^s(\mathbb{R}^N), \] where \(s\in (0, 1)\), \(N > 2s\), \(2^*_s = \frac{2N}{N-2s}\), \(0 < a \in L^\infty(\mathbb{R}^N)\) and \(f\geq (\not\equiv) 0\) is a functional in the dual space of \(\dot{H}^s(\mathbb{R}^N)\). By variational methods, the authors prove first that the above equation has a positive solution with negative energy if the norm of \(f\) is small enough. Moreover, if \(a(x) \geq 1\) in \(\mathbb{R}^N\), \(a(x) \rightarrow 1\) as \(|x| \rightarrow \infty\) and \(\|a\|_{L^\infty(\mathbb{R}^N}\) is suitably large, they prove also that the above equation has at least two positive solutions for \(f\) being small in the norm sense.