Multiple solutions of a parameter-dependent quasilinear elliptic equation (Q514272)

The authors consider the quasilinear elliptic equation \[ \begin{cases} \displaystyle -\sum\nolimits_{i, j=1}^N D_j(a_{ij}(x,u)D_i u)&\\ \quad\displaystyle +\frac12 \sum\nolimits_{i,j=1}^N D_s a_{ij} (x,u) D_iuD_ju=\lambda f(x,u) & \text{in}\;\Omega,\\ \displaystyle u\in H_0^1(\Omega), \end{cases} \] where \(\Omega\) is a bounded domain with smooth boundary and \(\lambda>0\) is a parameter. In the quasilinear term, \(a_{ij}=a_{ji} \) and \(a_{ij}(x,s)\sim (1+s^2)\delta_{ij}\). The nonlinearity behaves as \(f(x,s)\sim (1+|s|^{r-1})\) with \(r<4\). It is shown that the structure of the solutions depends keenly upon the parameter \(\lambda\). More precisely, while such an equation has no nontrivial solution for \(\lambda\) small, it is proved that both the number of solutions with positive energies and the number of solutions with negative energies tend to infinity as \(\lambda\to +\infty\). For six solutions nodal properties are determined.