On a min-max procedure for the existence of a positive solution for certain scalar field equations in \({\mathbb{R}}^ N\) (Q807845)

The problem of the existence of positive solutions \(u\in H^ 1({\mathbb{R}}^ n)\) of the semilinear elliptic equation \[ -\Delta u+u- q(x)| u|^{p-1}u=0 \] is considered. Under suitable conditions on p,n and \(q(x)\in L^{\infty}({\mathbb{R}}^ n)\) a min-max procedure for the corresponding variational functional J which is based on topological methods shows the existence of at least one positive solution.