Positive solutions of the \(\mathcal{A}\)-Laplace equation with a potential (Q6120818)

Let \(\Omega \subseteq \mathbb{R}^{n}\) be a nonempty domain, \(1<p<\infty \), and \(F:\Omega \times \mathbb{R}^{n}\rightarrow \mathbb{R}_{+}\) a function which satisfies conditions of measurability, ellipticity, convexity, continuously differentiability and homogeneity with respect to the second variable. The authors define \(\mathcal{A}(x,\xi )=\nabla _{\xi }F(x,\xi )\) and the \(\mathcal{A}\)-Laplacian as the divergence of \(\mathcal{A}\). They further assume a stronger convexity assumption on \(\mathcal{A}\) on every subdomain \(\omega \Subset \Omega \). They establish different properties of such \(\mathcal{A}\)-Laplacian operators and they recall the definition of local Morrey spaces \(M_{\mathrm{loc}}^{q}(p;\Omega )\) and their properties, among which the Morrey-Adams theorem. The paper focuses on the existence of positive weak solutions to the quasilinear equation: \(Q_{p,\mathcal{A},V}^{\prime }[v]:-div\mathcal{A} (x,\nabla v)+V\left\vert v\right\vert ^{p-2}v=g\in M_{\mathrm{loc}}^{q}(p;\Omega )\), with \(V\in M_{\mathrm{loc}}^{q}(p;\Omega )\). A weak solution to this equation is a function \(v\in M_{\mathrm{loc}}^{q}(p;\Omega )\) which satisfies: \[\int_{\Omega } \mathcal{A}(x,\nabla v)\cdot \nabla \varphi dx+\int_{\Omega }V\left\vert v\right\vert ^{p-2}v\varphi dx=\int_{\Omega }g\varphi dx\] for every \( \varphi \in C_{c}^{\infty }(\Omega )\). A weak supersolution is a function \( v\in M_{\mathrm{loc}}^{q}(p;\Omega )\) which satisfies an inequality analogous to the previous equality with \(\geq \) instead of \(=\) for every nonnegative \(\varphi \in C_{c}^{\infty }(\Omega )\). The authors prove Harnack and weak Harnack inequalities, standard elliptic Hölder estimates, and a Harnack convergence principle, for weak solutions to: \(Q_{p,\mathcal{A},V}^{\prime }[v]=0\). They define an eigenvalue \(\lambda \) associated with an eigenfunction \(v\) to the Dirichlet eigenvalue problem as a real number which satisfies: \(Q_{p,\mathcal{A},V}^{\prime }[v]=\lambda \left\vert v\right\vert ^{p-2}v\) in \(\omega \), with \(v\in W_{0}^{1,p}(\omega )\setminus \{0\}\). The generalized principal eigenvalue in a domain \(\omega \Subset \Omega \) is defined by: \[\lambda _{1}=\lambda _{1}(Q_{p,\mathcal{A},V};\omega )=\inf_{u\in C_{c}^{\infty }(\omega )\setminus \{0\}}\frac{Q_{p,\mathcal{A} ,V}[u;\omega ]}{\left\Vert u\right\Vert _{L^{p}(\omega )}^{p}},\] where \(Q_{p, \mathcal{A},V}\) is the nonlinear functional associated with \(Q_{p,\mathcal{A} ,V}^{\prime }\). The authors prove that, in a domain \(\omega \), the generalized principal eigenvalue is a principal eigenvalue, that is, an eigenvalue with a nonnegative eigenfunction, and that the generalized principal eigenvalue is simple. For the proof, they mainly use Diaz-Saa type inequalities and a Picone-type identity. The authors prove an Agmon-Allegretto-Piepenbrink theorem, the five following assertions being equivalent: the functional \(Q_{p,\mathcal{A},V}\) is nonnegative in \(\Omega \); the equation \(Q_{p,\mathcal{A},V}^{\prime }[u]=0\) admits a positive solution \(v\in W_{\mathrm{loc}}^{1,p}(\Omega )\); the equation \(Q_{p,\mathcal{A} ,V}^{\prime }[u]=0\) admits a positive supersolution \(\widetilde{v}\in W_{\mathrm{loc}}^{1,p}(\Omega )\); the first-order partial differential equation: \(-div \mathcal{A}(x,S)+(1-p)\mathcal{A}(x,S)\cdot S+V=0\), in \(\Omega \), admits a solution \(S\in L_{\mathrm{loc}}^{p}(\Omega ;\mathbb{R}^{n})\), in the sense that: \[ \int_{\Omega }\mathcal{A}(x,S)\cdot \nabla \varphi dx+(1-p)\int_{\Omega }( \mathcal{A}(x,S)\cdot S)\varphi dx+\int_{\Omega }V\varphi dx=0\] for every function \(\varphi \in C_{c}^{\infty }(\Omega )\); the preceding first-order equation admits a supersolution \(\widetilde{S}\in L_{\mathrm{loc}}^{p}(\Omega ; \mathbb{R}^{n})\). In the last parts of their paper, the authors define the notions of null-sequence, of ground state, and of criticality for the equation \(Q_{p,\mathcal{A},V}^{\prime }[u]=0\), for which they prove equivalent formulations. They finally analyze the removability of an isolated singularity for the equation: \(Q_{p,\mathcal{A},V}^{\prime }[w]=0\) in a punctured neighborhood of some point \(x_{0}\), the existence of positive solutions of minimal growth in a neighborhood of infinity in \(\Omega \), their relationships with the criticality or subcriticality previously defined, and the minimal decay of Hardy-weights.