Elliptic \(p\)-Laplacian systems with nonlinear boundary condition (Q6558317)

The authors study the multiplicity of solutions of the following system ($i=1,2$): \N\[\N-\Delta_{p_i}u_i =-|u_i|^{p_i-2}u_i\text{ in }\Omega,\N\]\N\[\N| \nabla u_i| ^{p_i-2} \nabla u_i \cdot \nu =g_i(x,u_1,u_2)\text{ on }\partial \Omega,\N\]\Nwhere $\Omega \subseteq \mathbb{R}^N$ is a bounded domain with a $C^2$-boundary $\partial \Omega$, $\nu(x)$ is the outer unit normal of $\Omega$ at $x \in \partial \Omega$, $\Delta_{p_i}= \mathrm{div\,}( | \nabla u_i| ^{p_i-2} \nabla u_i)$ for $u_i \in W^{1,p_i}(\Omega$) ($p_i \in (1,\infty)$) is the $p_i$-Laplace differential operator, and $g_i: \partial \Omega \times \mathbb{R} \times \mathbb{R} \to \mathbb{R}$ is a Caratheodory function satisfying technical assumptions. More precisely, the authors establish the existence of a positive minimal and a negative maximal solution in Theorem 3.4 (preliminary work is given in Theorems 3.2 and 3.3). The strategy is based on the sub- and supersolution method. Further, by assuming a variational structure of the system, the authors obtain the existence of a third nontrivial solution, whose components lie between the components of the positive minimal and the negative maximal solution, in Theorem 4.4 (preliminary work is given in Propositions 4.1--4.3). The strategy is based on comparison and truncation techniques.