Remarks on a planar conformal curvature problem (Q2339372)

The paper studies the curvature problem \[ -u'' + u=\frac{g(\theta)}{u^{1-p}}, \quad u\geq 0 \text{\;on\;S,} \eqno(1) \] where \(p<0\), \(g\) is a positive \(L^1\)-function with \(g(\theta +T)=g(\theta)\) for some \(T\leq 2\pi\), and \(S\) is the unit circle parametrized by the angle \(\theta\). The authors consider the Hilbert space \(H^1(S)\) and show that the functional \[ {\mathcal I}_T(u)=\frac{1}{2}\int_S (u^2 +u'{}^2) d\theta +\frac{1}{-p}\int_S gu^p d\theta \] has a minimizer in the class of nonnegative \(T\)-periodic functions \(u\in H^1(S)\) for which \(\int_S(u^2+u'{}^2-gu^p) d\theta\geq 0\). The existence of a positive periodic solution \(u\in H^1(S)\) of problem (1) is proved by means of this minimizer.