Concentration and multiplicity of solutions for a fourth-order equation with critical nonlinearity (Q2492381)

The authors consider the boundary value problem \[ \Delta^2u = u^p+\varepsilon u, \qquad u>0\;\text{ in }\Omega, \qquad \Delta u = u = 0\;\text{ on }\partial\Omega\tag{\(*\)} \] (the Navier boundary conditions). Here \(\Omega\subset \mathbb R^n\) is a smooth bounded domain, \(n>8\) and \(p+1=2n/(n-4)\) is the critical Sobolev exponent. Let \(\delta_{a,\lambda}\) denote the family of functions for which the best Sobolev constant is achieved (\(a\) is the concentration point, \(\lambda\) the dilation parameter) and let \(P\) be the projection on \(H^2(\Omega)\cap H^1_0(\Omega)\). It is shown that if \(u_\varepsilon\) is a solution of (\(*\)) and \(\| \Delta u_\varepsilon\| _2^2/\| u_\varepsilon\| _{2n/(n-4)}^2 \to S\) (the best Sobolev constant) as \(\varepsilon\to 0\), then \(u_\varepsilon\) asymptotically behaves like \(P_{\delta_{a_\varepsilon},{\lambda_\varepsilon}}\), where \(a_\varepsilon\) converges to a critical point of the Robin function and \(\lambda_\varepsilon \to \infty\). A certain converse of this result is also proved. Finally, it is shown that for \(\varepsilon>0\) small enough, the number of positive solutions of (\(*\)) at least equals the Lusternik-Schnirelman category of \(\Omega\). For \(n= 5\), 6 and 7 it is known that (*) has no solution if \(\Omega\) is a ball and \(\varepsilon\) is small enough.