Variational, topological, and partial order methods with their applications (Q451984)

A main goal of the book is to present the author's new results in nonlinear functional analysis and its applications. The book consists of 11 chapters, the first of which collects some basic concepts and known results used in the text. Chapter 2 is devoted to methods based on partial ordering given by a cone. Increasing, decreasing and mixed monotone operators are studied, some fixed point theorems and applications to integral and differential equations are given. A new characterization of normal cones is also shown. Chapter 3 deals with minimax methods. Mountain pass theorems, linking methods, local linking methods and critical groups are explained. Applications to elliptic boundary value problems are given. Elliptic equations with Dirichlet boundary data and with or without a parameter are discussed in Chapter 4. The structure of solutions is studied by using bifurcation and critical point theory. Branches of solutions with the same critical groups are described. Results guaranteeing the existence of three sign changing solutions are included. A class of Monge-Ampère equations with Dirichlet conditions is the subject of Chapter 5. The radial symmetry of solutions on a ball is shown by using the moving plane argument. The existence of a solution is proved for balls with a radius not exceeding a certain critical value. The local structure of solutions near a degenerate point is studied by using Lyapunov-Schmidt reduction. The global structure of the solution set is discussed by using the Leray-Schauder degree, a priori estimates and bifurcation theory. New results concerning existence of solutions to super-linear systems of Hammerstein integral equations are given in Chapter 6. They are based on the Leray-Schauder degree. Applications to two-point boundary problems for systems of ODE's are described. Furthermore, the existence of (component wise) positive solutions to systems of semi-linear elliptic equations with a super-linear nonlinearity in one of the equations and sub-linear nonlinearity in the second equation is given. Some results concerning the Dancer-Fučik spectrum are contained in Chapter 7. Mainly, the Fučik point spectrum for the operators \(-\Delta +V_\lambda\) with \(V_\lambda:\mathbb{R}^N \to \mathbb{R}\) of the type \(V_\lambda=a+\lambda g\), i.e., the set \(\Sigma_\lambda\) of couples \(\mu, \nu\) for which \(-\Delta u +V_\lambda u=\mu u^+ - \nu u^-\) with Dirichlet data have a nontrivial solution, is studied. The first nontrivial curve in the Fučik spectrum is constructed by using minimax methods and the properties of this curve are explained. The results are used for the study of existence of one-sign solutions of asymptotically linear elliptic problems. In Chapter 8, sign changing solutions for super-linear elliptic problems are discussed. Nehari manifold, invariant sets of descent flow and Morse theory are used. Sign changing solutions of problems with jumping nonlinearities, problems with \(p\)-Laplacian and Schrödinger equations are studied. Chapter 9 contains a generalization for \(p>2\) of the well-known Brezis-Nirenberg result stating that a local minimizer \(u_0 \in W^{1,p}\) of a functional \(J(u)=\frac{1}{p}\int_\Omega |Du|^p \, dx - \int_\Omega F(u) \, dx\) in \(C^1\) is a local minimizer in \(W^{1,p}\). The structure of the solution set of \(p\)-Laplacian problems with a parameter are derived. Chapter 10 is devoted to a class of non-local Kirchhoff elliptic problems with Dirichlet boundary data. Existence of nontrivial solutions is shown by using the Yang index and critical groups. Sign changing solutions are obtained by using variational methods and invariant sets of descent flow for a class of such problems. Uniqueness results are also included. In the last chapter, stationary problems \(\Delta u_i=\kappa u_i \sum_{j\neq i} b_{ij}u_j\) corresponding to competition systems with many species are discussed. Existence and unicity of positive solutions is given, the singular limit \(\kappa \to \infty\) is studied. For \(\kappa \to \infty\), the species are segregated and satisfy a system of certain differential inequalities. An optimal partition problem for principal eigenvalues of the Laplacian with Dirichlet conditions is discussed, i.e., finding a partition of a domain into mutually disjoint subsets \(\Omega_j\), \(j=1,\dots,m\), minimizing \(\sum_{j=1}^m \lambda_1(\Omega_j)\). Some recent results concerning Schrödinger systems for Bose-Einstein condensates are presented.