Existence of positive solutions of a semilinear nondivergence form elliptic equation in a conical domain (Q2459750)

The authors consider the uniformly elliptic equation, in nondivergence form: \[ \sum^n_{i,j=1}a_{i,j}(x)\frac{\partial^2u} {\partial x_i\partial x_j}+ \sum^n_{i=1}a_i(x)\frac{\partial u}{\partial x_i}+|u|^\sigma u=0\tag{1} \] in the cone \(K-\{(r,\omega)\in\mathbb R^n\mid \omega\in\Omega,r>0\}\), with the boundary condition: \[ u|_{\partial K}=0\tag{2} \] where \(\sigma\) is a positive constant and \(\Omega\) is a regular domain on the unit sphere in \(\mathbb R^n\). The aim of this work is to establish existence and nonexistence results of positive solutions of the equation (1) in the cone \(K_R=K\cap\{|x|> R\}\) with the boundary condition (2). The authors identify the critical exponent \[ \sigma^*= \frac{-4}{2-n-\sqrt{(n-2)^2+ 4\lambda_1}} \] where \(\lambda_1\) denotes the first eigenvalue of the Dirichlet problem for the Beltrami-Laplace operator on \(\Omega\) and prove that for values of \(\sigma\) greater than \(\sigma^*\) there exists a positive solution of the eqauaton (1), in some cone \(K_R=K\cap\{|x|> R\}\), with the boundary condition (2); for values of \(\sigma\) smaller than \(\sigma^*\) such a solution does not exist. Moreover, for the critical exponent \(\sigma=\sigma^*\) and assuming some condition on the convergence rate of the coefficients \(a_{i,j}(x)\) and \(a_i(x)\), for \(|x|\to\infty\), the authors prove that there are no positive solution on \(K_R\); finally they show by an example that, for the critical exponent \(\sigma=\sigma^*\) and without assuming any condition on the convergence rate of the coefficients there may exist a positive solution.