Existence and multiplicity of positive solutions for a class of nonlinear boundary value problems (Q664730)

Let \(\Omega\) be a domain in \({\mathbb R}^N\) with smooth boundary. The paper under review deals with the existence and multiplicity of positive solutions of the nonlinear elliptic equation \[ -\Delta u=g(x,u)\qquad\text{in}\;\Omega, \] subject to the nonlinear Neumann boundary condition \[ \frac{\partial u}{\partial n}+f(x,u)=0\qquad\text{on}\;\partial\Omega, \] where \(g:\Omega\times {\mathbb R}\rightarrow {\mathbb R}\) is a Carathéodory function and \(f:\partial\Omega\times {\mathbb R}\rightarrow {\mathbb R}\) is a continuous function. The main result of this paper establishes the existence of some \(\lambda_{*}>0\) such that the above considered problem admits at least three positive solutions for \(\lambda\in (0,\lambda_{*})\) and at least one positive solution if \(\lambda\in\{0\}\cup [\lambda_*,\infty)\). The proof strongly relies on the Ljusternik-Schnirelman theory.