Singular double phase equations with a sign changing reaction (Q7027673)

Let \(\Omega \subseteq \mathbb{R}^N\) be a bounded domain with a \(C^2\)-boundary \(\partial \Omega\). Here, the authors focus on the following nonlinear singular problem \N\[\N- \Delta_p^a u -\Delta_q u = \beta(z)u^{-\eta}+\lambda f(z,u) \mbox{ in }\Omega,\N\]\N\[\Nu\big|_{\partial \Omega}=0, \, \lambda>0, \, 0<\eta<1<q<p<N, \, u>0.\N\]\NThis is a Dirichlet problem driven by the double phase operator \(- \Delta_p^a u -\Delta_q u\), where \( \Delta_p^a u =\mbox{div} (a(z)|\nabla u|^{p-2}\nabla u)\), \(p \geq 2\), \(a \in C^{0,1}(\overline{\Omega}) \setminus \{0\}\), \(a(z) \geq 0\) for all \(z \in \overline{\Omega}\), and \( \Delta_q u =\mbox{div} (|\nabla u|^{q-2}\nabla u)\). In the reaction, the authors consider the competing effects of a singular term \( \beta(z)u^{-\eta}\) and of a parametric perturbation \(\lambda f(z,x)\) which is \((p-1)\)-superlinear as \(x \to +\infty\). Introducing suitable auxiliary problems and imposing sufficient conditions on the involved exponents and the functions \(\beta\) and \(f\), the authors establish that for all small values of the parameter \(\lambda\), the problem has at least two bounded positive solutions.