A note on nonlinear elliptic problems with singular potentials (Q2504827)

The authors study the problem \[ -\Delta u + V(|x|)u = f(u), \qquad u\in D^{1,2}({\mathbb R}^N;{\mathbb R}) \] where \(N\geq 3\), the potential \(V\) is positive, measurable, singular at the origin, and possibly also has a continuous set of singularities. The nonlinear function \(f\) is continuous and has superlinear powerlike growth; both subcritical and supercritical cases are considered. The paper contains two main existence results, under suitable additional hypotheses on \(V\) and \(f\). The first provides the existence of a nontrivial nonnegative radial solution, while the second gives the existence of infinitely many radial solutions, assuming \(f\) is odd. The proofs use mountain pass theorems. Nonexistence results are also proved for particular potentials and nonlinearities using a Pokhozhaev identity. The theorems generalize some results of \textit{M. Conti, S. Crotti} and \textit{D. Pardo} [Adv. Differ. Equ. 3, No. 1, 111--132 (1998; Zbl 0944.35024)] and \textit{M. Conti, S. Terracini} and \textit{G. Verzini} [Adv. Differ. Equ. 7, No. 3, 297--318 (2002; Zbl 1126.35316)].