Nonexistence of solutions of the Dirichlet problem for some quasilinear elliptic equations in a half-space (Q311210)

Let \(n\in \mathbb{N}\), with \(n\geq 2\), and let \(p>2\). Consider the Dirichlet problem \[ -\Delta_p u=f(u)\text{ in }\mathbb{R}_+^n:=\{(x_1,\dots,x_n)\in \mathbb{R}^n: x_n>0\},\quad u=0\text{ on }\partial \mathbb{R}_+^n, \] where \(f\in C^1(\mathbb{R}_+\cup\{0\})\cap C^2(\mathbb{R}_+)\) is a function satisfying the following condition: for each \(M>0\), there exist \(a,A>0\) and \(q>p-1\) such that \(as^q\leq f(s)\leq As^q\) and \(|f'(s)|\leq As^{q-1}\), for all \(s\in [0,M]\). The authors prove that if \(u\in W^{1,p}(\mathbb{R}_+^n)\cap L^\infty(\mathbb{R}_+^n)\) is a nontrivial and nonnegative solution to the above problem, then \(u(x',\cdot)\) is increasing for each \(x'\in \mathbb{R}^{n-1}\). When \(f(u)=u^q\), the previous monotonicity result and a result from \textit{L. Damascelli} et al. [Ann. Inst. Henri Poincaré, Anal. Non Linéaire 26, No. 4, 1099--1119 (2009; Zbl 1172.35405)], allow the authors to infer the nonexistence of nontrivial and nonnegative bounded solutions when certain inequalities involving \(p,n,q\) hold. The proof is based on scaling techniques, comparison principles and moving plane methods.