Superlinear elliptic equations with variable exponent via perturbation method (Q2307473)

Let \(f\in C(\mathbb{R}^N,\mathbb{R})\), \(N\geq 2\), and let \(p:\mathbb{R}^N\rightarrow \mathbb{R}\) be a Lipschitz continuous function satisfying \(1<\inf_{\mathbb{R}}p\leq \sup_{\mathbb{R}}p<N\). In this paper, the authors establish two existence results of weak solutions for the following equation involving the \(p(x)\)-Laplacian operator \[-\Delta_{p(x)}u+|u|^{p(x)-2}u=f(x,u) \text{ in } \mathbb{R}^N. \tag{1}\] The nonlinearity \(f\) is assumed superlinear, but not necessarily satisfying the Ambrosetti-Rabinowitz growth condition. The authors apply a perturbation method in order to get the compactness of Palais-Smale sequences of the energy functional associated to the perturbed equation. More precisely, they add a potential function of the type \(\lambda V(x)|u|^{p(x)-2}u\) in the left-hand side of equation \((1)\) and find a solution \(u_\lambda\) of the perturbed equation via the mountain pass theorem. Finally, they prove that, as \(\lambda \rightarrow 0\), \(u_\lambda\) converges to a solution of equation \((1)\).