Solutions for semilinear elliptic problems with critical Sobolev-Hardy exponents and Hardy potential (Q812664)

The authors consider the problem \[ -\Delta u - \mu {u\over{| x| ^2}} = {{| u| ^{2^*(s)-2}}\over{| x| ^s}}u + \lambda u \quad\text{in}\quad \Omega, \qquad u = 0 \quad\text{on}\quad \partial\Omega, \leqno(*) \] where \(\Omega\) is a smooth bounded domain in \({\mathbb R}^N\), \(N\geq 3\), containing the origin, \(\lambda>0\), \(0\leq \mu < \bar\mu=(N-2)^2/4\) is the best constant in the Hardy inequality, and \(2^*(s)=2(N-s)/(N-2)\) is the critical Sobolev-Hardy exponent. The energy functional for \((*)\) on \(H_0^1(\Omega)\) is \[ J(u) = {1\over 2} \int_\Omega \left( | \nabla u| ^2 - \mu{{| u| ^2}\over{| x| ^2}} \right)dx - {1\over{2^*(s)}} \int_\Omega {{| u| ^{2^*(s)}}\over{| x| ^s}}\,dx - {\lambda\over 2} \int_\Omega | u| ^2\,dx. \] It fails to satisfy the classical Palais-Smale condition in \(H_0^1(\Omega)\) because of the invariance of the first two integrals with respect to the scaling \(u\mapsto u_\epsilon=\epsilon^{(N-2)/2}u(\epsilon\cdot)\) and the existence of a nontrivial entire solution of the limiting problem \[ -\Delta u - \mu{u\over{| x| ^2}} = {{| u| ^{2^*(s)-2}u}\over{| x| ^s}} \quad\text{in}\quad {\mathbb R}^N, \qquad u(x)\rightarrow 0 \quad\text{as}\quad | x| \rightarrow\infty. \] However, a local Palais-Smale condition does hold, and using this the authors [Appl. Math. Lett. 17, 411--416 (2004; Zbl 1133.35358)] proved that \((*)\) has at least one positive solution \(u_0\in H_0^1(\Omega)\) for \(0<\lambda<\lambda_1\) and a suitable choice of \(\mu\), where \(\lambda_1\) is the first eigenvalue of \(-\Delta -{\mu\over{| x| ^2}}\). The main result here is that if \(N\geq 5\), \(0\leq s<2\) and \(0\leq \mu< \bar\mu-({{N+2}\over N})^2\), then for any \(\lambda>0\) the problem \((*)\) has a nontrivial solution \(u\in H_0^1(\Omega)\) with energy in the range \((0,{{2-s}\over{2(N-s)}} (A_{\mu,s})^{(N-s)/(2-s)})\), where \[ A_{\mu,s} = \inf_{ u\in H_0^1(\Omega)\backslash\{0\} } \int_\Omega \left( | \nabla u| ^2 - \mu{{| u| ^2}\over{| x| ^2}} \right)dx \bigg/ \left( \int_\Omega {{| u| ^{2^*(s)}}\over{| x| ^s}}\,dx \right)^{2/2^*(s)}. \] The case \(s=0\) was proved previously by \textit{D.~Cao} and \textit{P.~Han} [J. Differ. Equ. 205, 521--537 (2004; Zbl 1154.35346)].