The effect of the domain's configuration space on the number of nodal solutions of singularly perturbed elliptic equations (Q812899)

This paper deals with the number of nodal solutions (sign-changing solutions) to the nonlinear elliptic Dirichlet problem : \[ -\varepsilon^2\Delta u+a u=f(u) \;\;\text{in } \Omega,\;\;u\in H^1_0(\Omega),\tag{1} \] where \(\Omega\) is a bounded domain in \(\mathbb{R}^N,\) \(N\geq2,\) \(a>0,\) and \(f\) grows superlinearly and subcritically. A model nonlinearity is \[ f(u)= \sum_{i=1}^{k} c_i| u| ^{p_i-2}u^+ +\sum_{j=1}^l d_j| u| ^{q_j-2}u^- \] where \(c_i,d_j >0,\) \(p_i,q_j \in (2,2^*),2^*=\dfrac{2N}{N-2},\) for \(N\geq 3\) [resp. \(\infty\) for \(N=2.\)] The authors prove that, for any \(r>0\), there exists \(\epsilon_r\) such that, for \(0<\varepsilon \leq\varepsilon_r\), (1) has at least cat\((i_r)+1\) nodal solutions; cat\((i_r)\) solutions have two nodal domains and the last one has, at most, three nodal domains. Here cat denotes the category in the sense of Lyusternik-Schnirelman and \(i_r\) is the inclusion between two spaces, which depend on \(r\), and involve the shape of \(\partial \Omega\). Set \(F(s)=\int_0^s f(t) dt.\) The proof is based on the functional \[ \psi:H_0^1(\Omega) \to \mathbb R,\;\;\psi(u) =\dfrac{1}{2}\| u\| ^2_{H^1}-\int_{\Omega}F(u(x))\,dx, \] whose critical points are closely related to the weak solutions of (1) and which satisfies the Paley-Smale condition.