A variational ODE and its application to an elliptic problem (Q2480095)

The authors consider the following singular boundary value problem for a second-order ODE \[ \begin{cases} -u''(r)+\frac{(N-1)(N-3)}{4r^2}u(r)+\lambda u(r)=f\left(r,r^{\frac{1-N}{2}}u(r)\right),\quad r>0\\ u\in H=H^1_0=\{u\in L^2(0,\infty),\;u'\in L^2(0,\infty)\;\text{ and }\;u(0)=0\} \end{cases}\tag{P} \] where \(\lambda>0\) and \(f=f(r,s)\in C((0,+\infty)\times\mathbb{R},\mathbb{R})\) is nondecreasing in \(s\geq0\) for \(r>0\) and there exist \(p(r)\) and \(q(r)\) with \(0\leq p(r)\leq q(r)\in L^\infty(0,\infty)\) such that \[ \lim_{s\to0}f(r,s)=p(r)\;\text{ and }\; \lim_{s\to+\infty}f(r,s)=q(r) \] uniformly in \(r>0.\) Moreover, they assume \(L<l\) where \[ \begin{aligned} l&=\inf\{\int_0^\infty[| u'|^2+\frac{(N-1)(N-3)}{4r^2}-p(r)u^2]dr,\;u\in H\;\text{ and }\;\int_0^\infty u^2dr=1\}\\ L&=\inf\{\int_0^\infty[| u'|^2+\frac{(N-1)(N-3)}{4r^2}-q(r)u^2]dr,\;u\in H\;\text{ and }\;\int_0^\infty u^2dr=1\}. \end{aligned} \] The main result of the paper is: For all \(\lambda\in(-l,-L),\) problem (P) has at least one positive solution in \(u\in H\cap C^2(0,+\infty).\) Moreover, (P) has no nonnegative solution for \(\lambda\not\in[-l,-L].\) To prove this theorem, the authors use the variational functional \(I:\; H\to\mathbb{R}\) defined by \[ I=\tfrac{1}{2}\int_0^\infty[| u'|^2+\frac{(N-1)(N-3)}{4r^2}u^2+\lambda u^2]dr-\int_0^\infty F(r,u)dr \] where \(F(r,t)=\int_0^t f(r,r^{\frac{1-N}{2}}s^+)sds\) and \(s^+=\max(0,s).\) Then the authors derive some estimates on the functional \(I\) so that \(I\) satisfies the conditions of the Mountain Pass Theorem. The main theorem complements a recent result obtained in [\textit{C. A. Stuart} and \textit{H. S. Zhou}, SIAM J. Math. Anal. 37, 218--237 (2006; Zbl 1099.78013)].