Properties of positive solutions of a nonlinear eigenvalue problem. (Q5943585)

The authors study the nonlinear elliptic eigenvalue problem \((P_\lambda): -\Delta u=\lambda f(u)\) in a smooth bounded domain \(\Omega\subset\mathbb R^N\) , \(u=0\) on \(\partial\Omega\), \(\lambda>0\) is a parameter and \(f: [0,\infty)\to\mathbb R\) a Lipschitz continuous function satisfying the following condition (F): there exist constants \(0<a_1<\dots<a_m\) such that \(f(a_1)=\cdots=f(a_m)=0\) and \(f(t)>0\) for \(t\in[0,a_m]\setminus\{a_1,\dots,a_m\}\). It is proved that the set of \(\lambda\) for which \((P_\lambda)\) has two solutions with \(C\) norms in \((a_{k-1},a_k)\) is an open interval \((\overline\lambda_k,\infty)\), and that there is no gap in the interval. From this result the authors draw a bifurcation diagram of \((P_\lambda)\) and also give several properties of the solutions \(u_k(\lambda)\) with respect to \(\lambda\).