Layer structures for the solutions to the perturbed simple pendulum problems (Q819681)

The paper studies positive solutions of the problem \[ -u''=\mu f(u)+\lambda \sin u,\quad u(-T)=u(T)=0, \] for \(\mu\in\mathbb R\) and \(\lambda>0\). A typical example for \(f\) is \(f(u)=| u| ^{p-1}u\). The author is interested in solutions for large values of \(\lambda\). This is a singular perturbation problem that he studies minimizing the functional \[ K(u)=\int_{-T}^{T}(\frac{1}{2}{u'}^2(t)-\lambda(1-\cos u(t)))\,dt \] under the constraint \[ \int_{-T}^{T}F(u(t))\, dt=2TF(\alpha). \] Here, \(\alpha\) is a constant and \(F(u)=\int_0^uf(s)\,ds\). In case \(0<\alpha<\pi\), a first result provides a solution \(u_{\lambda}\) for some \(\mu(\lambda)<0\). This solution tends to \(\alpha\) uniformly on compact subsets of \(]-T,T[\) as \(\lambda\) goes to infinity and exhibits boundary layers at both end points. A second theorem considers the case \(\pi<\alpha<3\pi\). The claim is that a solution exists with \(\mu(\lambda)>0\) which tends to a step function with values \(3\pi\) on an interval \(]-t_{\alpha}, t_{\alpha}[\) and \(\pi\) on \(]-T,-t_{\alpha}[\cup]t_{\alpha},T[\). This leads to both boundary layers and interior layers.