A comparison principle and applications to asymptotically \(p\)-linear boundary value problems (Q2348669)

In this paper, the author studies the following nonlinear elliptic problems \[ \begin{cases} -\Delta_p u=f \quad\text{in } \Omega, \quad & u=0 \quad \text{on }\partial\Omega,\\ -\Delta_p v=g \quad\text{in }\Omega, \quad & v=0 \quad \text{on }\partial\Omega,\end{cases}\tag{1} \] where \(\Omega \) is a bounded domain in \(\mathbb R^n\) with a smooth boundary \(\partial \Omega \in C^{2, \alpha}\) for some \(\alpha \in (0,1), \Delta_p z= \mathrm{div}(|\nabla z|^{p-2}\nabla z),\) and \(f, g\in L^1(\Omega)\). Without requiring that \(f\geq g\) a.e. in \(\Omega\), the author establishes a strong comparison principle \[ u>v \quad\text{in }\Omega\quad\text{and} \quad \frac{\partial u}{\partial \nu} < \frac{\partial v}{\partial \nu} \quad \text{on }\partial\Omega, \] where \(u, v\in W^{1,p}_0(\Omega)\) are solutions of (1) and \(\nu\) is the outer unit normal vector on \(\partial\Omega\). An application to the existence of positive solutions for a class of singular \(p\)-Laplacian boundary value problems with asymptotically \(p\)-linear nonlinearity is also provided.