Bifurcation of radially symmetric solutions of degenerate quasilinear elliptic equations (Q1894161)

The paper treats the boundary value problem \[ -\text{div} \left[ \varphi \bigl( |\nabla u |\bigr) {\nabla u \over |\nabla u |} \right] - \lambda f(u) = 0 \text{ in } \Omega, \quad u = 0 \text{ on } \partial \Omega. \tag{1} \] Here, \(\Omega\) is assumed to be the open unit ball in \(\mathbb{R}^n\), \(\lambda > 0\), and the functions \(\varphi, f\) have to satisfy for some \(p > 1 : \varphi (t) = t^p + \varphi_1 (t)t^{p + 1}\), \(f(u) = |u |^{p - 1} u + f_1 (|u |) |u |^p u\), with \(f_1\), \(\varphi_1 \in C^\infty [0, d_0)\), \(d_0 > 0\). As a substitute for the trivial linearization of (1) at \(u = 0\), the following homogeneous, ``unperturbed'' boundary value problem is considered: \[ - \text{div} \bigl( |\nabla u |^{p - 1} \nabla u \bigr) - \lambda |u |^{p - 1} u = 0 \text{ in } \Omega, \quad u = 0 \text{ on } \partial \Omega, \tag{2} \] which has been investigated by many authors. Problem (2) has a first eigenvalue \(\lambda = \lambda_0\) with a radially symmetric, positive and even eigenfunction \(u_0 = u_0 (s)\) which belongs to the space \[ X : u \Bigl \{u \in L^\infty_{\text{even}} (- 1,1) \cap W^{1, \infty} (-1,1) : u (- 1) = u(1) = 0,\;|s |^{{p - 1 \over p}} u'(s) \in W^{1, \infty} (-1,1) \Bigr\}. \] The main result of the present paper is as follows: For sufficiently small \(\varepsilon_1 > 0\), there exists a family \(\{(u^{(\varepsilon)}, \lambda^{(\varepsilon)})\}_{0 \leq \varepsilon < \varepsilon_1} \subset X \times \mathbb{R}\) of solutions for problem (1), of the form \(u^{(\varepsilon)} = \varepsilon u_0 + \varepsilon^2 \nu^{(\varepsilon)}\), \(\lambda^{(\varepsilon)} = \lambda_0 + \varepsilon \mu^{ (\varepsilon)}\), where, in addition, \(\nu^{(\varepsilon)} \in X\) and \(\mu^{(\varepsilon)}\) are continuous functions of \(\varepsilon\). As a corollary, the paper also contains a formula for the values of the energy functional corresponding to (1), along the bifurcating branch \((u^{ (\varepsilon)}, \lambda^{(\varepsilon)})\).