No label defined (Q4933991)

The authors consider the semilinear elliptic problem \[ -\sum^N_{i,j=1} \bigl(a_{ij}(x)u_{x_i} \bigr)_{x_j}+ c(x)u=f(x,u) \text{ in } \Omega \] with zero boundary data (in the sense of trace), where \(\Omega \subset \mathbb{R}^N\) is an open bounded subset, \(a_{ij}=a_{ji}\), \(c\) are in \(L^\infty (\Omega)\), and \(f\) is a Carathéodory function. Suppose additionally that (i) \(\alpha_0\), \(\beta_0\in H^1_0 (\Omega)\) are lower and upper solutions of the above BVP such that \(\alpha_0\leq \beta_0\) a.e., (ii) \(f_u\), \(f_{uu}\) are continuous and \(f_{uu}(x,u)\geq 0\). (iii) \(0<\text{const}<c(x)-f_u(x, \beta_0)\) a.e., and \(f(\cdot, \eta)-f_u (\cdot,\eta) \eta\in L_2 (\Omega)\) \(\forall \eta\in H^1_0 (\Omega)\). The main result then is the existence of sequences \(\{\alpha_n\}\), \(\{\beta_n\}\) such that \(\alpha_n\to\alpha\), \(\beta_n \to\beta\) weakly in \(H^1_0(\Omega)\), where \(\alpha,\beta\) are the minimal and maximal weak solution of the BVP. Moreover, \(\alpha_n\leq \alpha_{n+1}\leq \alpha \leq \beta\leq \beta_{n+1} \leq\beta_n\) a.e. in \(\Omega\) for all \(n\) and the convergence is quadratic. The \(\alpha_{n+1}\), \(\beta_{n+1}\) are obtained by solving the corresponding linear equation, where \(f(x,\cdot)\) is linearized around \(\alpha_n\), \(\beta_n\) resp. Conditions (ii), (iii) ensure the existence. Monotonicity of the sequences follows from a comparison result.