On the effect of equivalent constraints on a maximizing problem associated with the Sobolev type embeddings in \(\mathbb R^N\) (Q261418)

Let \(N\geq 2\), \(N<p<\infty\) and \(0<\gamma\leq N\). The authors consider the quantities \[ D=\sup\{\| u\|^N_N+\alpha\| u\|_p^p : u\in H^{1,N}(\mathbb{R}^N), \| u\|_{H^{1,N}_\gamma}=1\}, \] where \(\alpha>0\) and \(\| u\|_{H^{1,N}_\gamma}=(\| u\|_N^\gamma+\|\nabla u\|^\gamma_N)^{1/\gamma}\), and \[ \alpha_*=\inf\{(1-\| u\|^N_N)\| u\|_p^{-p}:u\in H^{1,N}, \| u\|_{H_\gamma^{1,N}}=1\}. \] The main results are the following. If \(\gamma>p-N\), then \(\alpha_*=0\) and \(D\) is attained for all \(\alpha>\alpha_*\). If \(\gamma=p-N\), then \(\alpha_*>0\) and \(D\) is attained for \(\alpha>\alpha_*\) and never attained for \(\alpha\leq\alpha_*\). If \(\gamma<p-N\), then \(\alpha_*>0\) and \(D\) is attained for \(\alpha\geq\alpha_*\) but never attained for \(\alpha<\alpha_*\). A relationship between \(\alpha_*\) and the Gagliardo-Nirenberg-Sobolev constant is provided in the case when \(\gamma\leq p-N\).