Highly oscillatory solutions of a Neumann problem for a \(p\)-Laplacian equation (Q2349030)

The paper deals with a boundary value problem of the form \[ \begin{aligned} -\epsilon(\phi_p(\epsilon u'))'+a(x)W'(u)=0, \\ u'(0)=u'(1)=0,\end{aligned} \] where \(\phi_p(s)=|s|^{p-2}s,\) \(s\in\mathbb{R}\) and the real valued function \(W\) is defined on the interval \([-1,1]\). The purpose of the authors is to investigate the behavior of the solutions and to find the limit profile when the (positive) parameter \(\epsilon\) tends to 0. A summary of the results, as it is described in the paper, states as follows: For a family \(\{u_{\epsilon}\}\) of solutions, define the energy function \[ E_{\epsilon}(x)=-\frac{p-1}{p}\frac{{\epsilon}^p}{a(x)} |u'{}_{\epsilon}(x)|^p +W(u_{\epsilon}(x)). \] Then, the following hold true. (I) Up to subsequences, \(E_{\epsilon}\) converges for \(\epsilon\to 0+\) to a \(C^1\) function \(E\); moreover \(E\) satisfies the differential equation \[ E'(x) = \frac{a'(x)}{a(x)} K(E(x)), \] where \(K\) is a function measuring the averaged kinetic energy of the solutions of the autonomous equation \(-(\phi_p(u'))' +W'(u) = 0.\) (II) Information about the asymptotic distribution of the zeros of \(u_{\epsilon}\) can be obtained from \(E\). (III) The problem has many solutions and, for any solution \(E\) of it, there is a family \(\{u_{\epsilon}\}\) of solutions such that its energy \(E_{\epsilon}\) converges to \(E\).