Existence of multi-peak solutions for a class of quasilinear problems in \(\mathbb R^N\) (Q446230)

This paper deals with the existence of muti-peak solutions \(u\in W^{1,p}(\mathbb R^N),u>0\) of problems: \[ -\epsilon^p\Delta_pu+V(x)u^{p-1}=f(u)\quad \text{in }\mathbb R^N, \, \,2\leq p<N, (P_{\epsilon}) \] where \(\Delta_pu=\text{div}(|\nabla u|^{p-2}\nabla), \epsilon>0,V:\mathbb R^N\to\mathbb R\) is a continuous function with \(V(x)\geq V_o>0\) such that there exist \(k\) disjoint bounded regions \(\Omega_1,\dots,\Omega_k\) that satisfy \[ \underset{\partial \Omega_i} {\min} V(x)>\underset{\Omega_i}{\inf} V(x),\quad i=1,\dots,k. \] The function \(f:\mathbb R\to\mathbb R\) satisfies the assumptions \(f(t)=0\) for \(t\leq 0\), \(f(t)=o(t^{p-1})\) as \(t\to 0^+\), \(\frac{f(t)}{t^{p-1}}\) is increasing for \(t\in(0,\infty)\), and there exists \(q\) with \(p<q<\frac{Np}{N-p}=p^\ast\) such that \(\frac{f(t)}{t^{q-1}}\to 0\) as \(t\to\infty.\) Moreover, if \(F(t)=\int_0^t f(s)ds,\) there exists \(\theta\in (p,p^\ast)\) and \(r>0\) such that \(\theta F(t)\leq tf(t)\) for all \(t\geq r.\) The author shows the existence of multi-peak solutions to \((P_{\epsilon}).\) He uses variational arguments, in particular, the change of variable \(x=\epsilon y\) and the investigation of Palais-Smale sequences associated to a suitable functional \(\Phi_{\epsilon}:E_{\epsilon}\to \mathbb R\), where \[ E_{\epsilon}=\left\{u\in W^{1,p}(\mathbb R^N):\int_{\mathbb R^N}V(\epsilon x)|u|^p dx<\infty\right\}. \] Related methods have been introduced previously by \textit{C. Gui} [Commun. Partial Differ. Equations 21, No. 5--6, 787--820 (1996; Zbl 0857.35116)], and \textit{M. A. del Pino} and \textit{P. L. Felmer} [Calc. Var. Partial Differ. Equ. 4, No. 2, 121--137 (1996; Zbl 0844.35032)].