On the \(Z_2\) index of the global attractor for a class of \(p\)-Laplacian equations (Q607083)

The authors consider the following initial-boundary value problem (\(p\)-Laplacian equation) \[ u_t - \text{div}\left(|\nabla u|^{p-2}\nabla u\right) + |u|^{r-2} u - \lambda |u|^{s-2} u+ f(x,u)=0\quad \text{in }\Omega \times\mathbb R^+, \] \[ u(x,0)=u_0(x)\quad \text{in }\Omega, \qquad u(x,t)=0 \quad \text{on }\partial \Omega \times \mathbb R^+, \] where \(2 \leq s \leq p\), \(2 \leq s \leq r\), \(\lambda>0\) and \(f:\Omega \times\mathbb R\rightarrow \mathbb R\) is a Carathéodory mapping of class \(C^1\) in \(u\). It is also assumed that \(f(x,u)\) is an odd function with respect to \(u\) and that there exist \(\alpha, \alpha_0\) and \(l\) such that \(\alpha < r\), \(s < \alpha_0\), \(l>0\), \[ \begin{aligned} \lim_{|t|\rightarrow \infty}\frac{|f(x,t) t|}{|t|^\alpha}&=0 \text{ uniformly in }x,\\ \lim_{|t|\rightarrow 0}\frac{|f(x,t) t|}{|t|^{\alpha_0}}&=0 \text{ uniformly in }x \end{aligned} \] and \[ (r-1)|u|^{r-2}+f'_{u}(x,u)>-l\quad \text{ a.e. }x \in \Omega. \] There is one more assumption with respect to the function \(f\): it is assumed that, for all positive constants \(K\), there exists a function \(b_{K}(x)\) that belongs to \(L^2(\Omega)\) and satisfies the following inequality: \(|f(x,u)| \leq b_{K}(x)\) for \(|u| \leq K\). The first main result of the paper establishes that the global attractor \(A\) for this problem has the following property: for any integer \(m \geq 1\), there is a neighborhood \({\mathcal O}\) of \(0\) such that the \(Z_2\) index of \(A\backslash{\mathcal O}\) is greater than or equal to \(m\). In the second main result, it is assumed that \(2<s=p<r\), \(\lambda_m < \lambda <\lambda_{m+1}\), \(m \geq 1\), where \(\lambda_m\) is the \(m\)-th eigenvalue of \(-\Delta\). The conclusion of this second theorem is the existence of a neighborhood \({\mathcal O}\) of zero such that the the \(Z_2\) index of \(A\backslash {\mathcal O}\) is greater than or equal to \(m\). The functional \[ \Phi(u)=\int_{\Omega}\left\{\tfrac{1}{p}\,|\nabla u|^p +\tfrac{1}{r}\,|u|^r-\tfrac{\lambda}{s}\,|u|^s+F(u)\right\}\,dx, \] with \(F(x,u):=\int_{0}^{u} f(x,s) \,ds\), plays a key role in the proofs.