Existence and multiplicity of solutions for Kirchhoff type problems involving \(p(x)\)-biharmonic operators (Q399439)

In this paper, the authors obtain the existence and multiplicity of weak solutions for the following Kirchhoff type problems involving \(p(x)\)-biharmonic operators \[ \begin{cases} M\Biggl(\int_\Omega \frac{1}{p(x)}|\Delta u|^{p(x)}\,dx\Biggr)\Delta (|\Delta u|^{p(x)-2}\Delta u) &=f(x,u)\quad \mathrm{in}\,\, \Omega,\\ u & =0 \quad \mathrm{on}\,\,\partial\Omega,\end{cases}\tag{P} \] where \(\Omega \) is a bounded domain of \(\mathbb R^N\) with smooth boundary \(\partial\Omega, p(x)\in C(\overline{\Omega})\) with \(1< \inf_{\overline{\Omega}}p(x)\leq \sup_{\overline{\Omega}}p(x)< +\infty, \Delta (|\Delta u|^{p(x)-2}\Delta u)\) is the \(p(x)-\)biharmonic operator and \(M(t)\) is a continuous real-valued function satisfying the following conditions: [(M\(_1\))] there exists a positive constant \(m_0\) such that \(M(t)\geq m_0,\) [(M\(_2\))] there exists \(\mu \in (0, 1)\) such that \(\widehat{M}(t)\geq (1-\mu)M(t)t,\) where \(\widehat{M}(t)=\int_0^t M(\tau)\,d\tau.\) Regarding the function \(f,\) it is assumed that \(f: \Omega \times\mathbb R \rightarrow\mathbb R \) is a Carathéodory function. Using the mountain pass theorem of Ambrosetti and Rabinowitz and Ekeland's variational principle, the authors first prove, in the case where \(f(x,u)=\lambda(x)|u|^{q(x)-2}u\) with the functions \(\lambda\,(\mathrm{in}\, L^\infty(\Omega))\) and \(q\) satisfying some conditions, that there exists \(\nu^*>0\) such that problem \((P)\) has at least two positive non-trivial weak solutions for \(|\lambda|_{L^\infty(\Omega)}<\nu^*\). Next, by considering the case when \(f(x,u)=\lambda |u|^{q(x)-2}u\), where \(\lambda\) is a positive parameter and the function \(q\) is restricted to a certain condition, the authors prove that there exists a positive constant \(\lambda^*\) such that problem \((P)\) has at least one non-trivial weak solution for any \(\lambda \in (0, \lambda^*).\)