Solutions for indefinite semilinear elliptic equations in exterior domains (Q5929381)

The paper is concerned with the problem \(-\Delta u =a(x)g(u)\) in \(\Omega\), \(u=0\) on \(\partial\Omega\) in an exterior domain \(\Omega\), and is motivated in part by an article of \textit{F. Munyamarere} and \textit{M. Willem} [J. Math. Anal. Appl. 187, No.~2, 526-537 (1994; Zbl 0812.35007)] treating the case \(\Omega=\mathbb{R}^N\) with \(a\) radial and positive. The author considers a general sign-changing function \(a\in C(\Omega;\mathbb{R})\) which is nonpositive at infinity and satisfies \(a(x) = O(|x|^{-2})\) as \(|x|\to\infty\). Regarding \(g\in C(\mathbb{R},\mathbb{R})\), the usual subcritical growth at infinity is assumed. Under these assumptions the author proves the existence of a positive solution as well as infinitely many solutions in the case when \(g\) is odd. The most interesting part of the paper consists in establishing the Palais-Smale condition for the corresponding energy functional.