No label defined (Q4936259)

Let \(\Omega\) be a bounded domain of \(\mathbb{R}^n\), \(\psi\in H^1_0(\Omega)\), \(h\in L^2(\Omega)\) and \(g: \Omega\times\mathbb{R}\to \mathbb{R}\) a given Carathéodory function. Let us set \[ K_\psi= \{u\in H^1_0(\Omega)\mid\Delta u\leq\Delta\psi\text{ (in weak sense)}\} \] and consider the following problem: find \(u\in K_\psi\) such that \[ \int_\Omega [DuD(v- u)- g(x,u)(v- u)+ h(v-u)] dx\geq 0\text{ for all }v\in K_\psi. \] The solutions of this variational inequality correspond to the critical points of the functional \[ f_h(u)= {1\over 2} \int_\Omega|Du|^2 dx- \int_\Omega dx\int^u_0 g(x,t) dt+ \int_\Omega hu dx, \] constrained on the convex cone \(K_\psi\). The aim of this paper is to study the solvability and the multiplicity of solutions of the problem for a generic pair \((\psi,h)\), under suitable assumptions on the asymptotic behaviour of the function \(g(x,\cdot)\) with respect to the eigenvalues \((\lambda_i)_i\) of the Laplace operator in \(H^1_0(\Omega)\). The results obtained show that the presence of the obstacle \(\psi\) produces some phenomena which make evident a deep analogy with well-known results, firstly stated by Ambrosetti and Prodi, concerning semilinear elliptic differential equations with ``jumping'' nonlinearities.