Of A Multiplicity Theorem For A Variable Exponent Dirichlet Problem

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Abstract

of
A Multiplicity Theorem for a Variable Exponent
Dirichlet Problem
Nikolaos S. Papageorgiou
Dept. of Mathematics, National Technical University, Athens, Greece
e-mail: npapg@math.ntua.gr

Eugénio M. Rocha
Dept. of Mathematics, University of Aveiro, Portugal
e-mail: eugenio@mat.ua.pt

(Glasgow Math. Journal 50(2008), 1–15)

Abstract. We consider a nonlinear Dirichlet problem driven by the p(·)-


Laplacian. Using variational methods based on the critical point theory, to-
gether with suitable truncation techniques and the use of upper-lower solutions
and of critical groups, we show that the problem has at least three nontrivial
solutions, two of which have constant sign (one positive, the other negative).
The hypotheses on the nonlinearity incorporates in our framework of analysis,
both coercive and noncoercive problems.

2000 Mathematics Subject Classification. 35J60, 35J70, 58E05.


Keywords. p(·)-Laplacian, variable exponent spaces, nonstandard growth
condition, upper-lower solutions, linking sets, linking theorem, three nontrivial
smooth solutions, critical groups.

1 Introduction
Let Z ⊆ RN be a bounded domain with a C 2 -boundary ∂Z. In this paper, we
study the existence of multiple nontrivial solutions for the Dirichlet problem
−∆p(z) x(z) = m(z)|x(z)|r−2 x(z) + f (z, x(z)) a.e. on Z,

(1)
x|∂Z = 0.

In problem (1), we assume that p ∈ C 1 (Z̄) (i.e., it is continuously differ-


entiable), 1 < r < p− = minZ̄ p and f is a Carathéodory function (i.e., it

1
is measurable in z ∈ Z and continuous  in x ∈ X). The differential oper-
ator −∆p(z) x = − div ||Dx||p(z)−2 Dx) , is called the p(·)-Laplacian. When
p(z) ≡ p (a constant), it becomes the usual p-Laplacian differential operator.
The goal of this paper, is to prove a ”three nontrivial solutions theorem“ for
problem (1).
Recently there have been some three solutions theorems for problems driven
by the regular p-Laplacian. We mention the works of Bartsch-Liu [3], Carl-
Perera [4], Guo-Liu [11], Liu [14], Liu-Liu [15], Papageorgiou-Papageorgiou [18],
Zhang-Chen-Li [21], and Zhang-Li [22]. In all these works, the Euler functional
of the problem is coercive. Here, the hypotheses on the nonlinearity f (z, x),
can incorporate in our framework of analysis problems with a noncoercive Euler
functional. Our method of proof, is variational based on critical point theory,
coupled with the use of ordered pairs of upper-lower solutions and with suitable
truncation techniques. We also use critical groups to distinguish between critical
points.
Multiplicity results for problems driven by variable p(·)-Laplacian, were
obtained recently by Fan-Zhang [8] and Zang [20], but under symmetry con-
ditions on the nonlinearity f (z, ·) (namely, they assumed that x 7→ f (z, x)
is an odd function). We should also mention the work of Mihailescu [17],
where the author considers a specific right hand side nonlinearity of the form
g(z, x) = A|x|
n
α−2
x+o B|x|
β−2
x with 1 < α < p− = minZ̄ p < p+ = maxZ̄ p <

β < min N, NN−p p
− and A, B > 0, and proves the existence of a λ∗ > 0
such that the problem has at least two distinct nontrivial weak solutions when
A, B ∈ (0, λ∗ ). Our multiplicity result here extends that of Mihailescu [17].
Differential equations and variational problems with p(·)-growth conditions
arise naturally in nonlinear elasticity theory and in the theory of electrorheo-
logical fluids. For details, we refer to Acerbi-Mingione [1] and Ruzička [19].
The paper is organized as follows. In Section 2, we present some back-
ground material concerning variable exponent Lebesgue and Sobolev spaces. In
Section 3, we state our hypotheses on the data of problem (1) and we formulate
the main multiplicity result of this paper (the three nontrivial solutions theo-
rem). In Section 4, we establish the existence of two nontrivial smooth solutions
of constant sign. Finally, in Section 5, we prove the full multiplicity theorem.

2 Summary of Main Results


As was mentioned in the Introduction, Z ⊆ RN is a bounded domain with a
C 2 -boundary ∂Z. We consider an exponent p(·) which belongs in C 1 (Z̄) (i.e.,
it is continuously differentiable on Z̄). We set p− = minZ̄ p, p+ = maxZ̄ p and
we assume that 1 ≤ r < p− (see (1)). We also make the following hypotheses
concerning the weight function m and the nonlinearity f :

H(m): m ∈ L∞ (Z)+ and m 6≡ 0.

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H(f ): f : Z × R → R is a function such that f (z, 0) = 0 a.e. on Z and

(i) for all x ∈ R, z 7→ f (z, x) is measurable;


(ii) for almost all z ∈ Z, x 7→ f (z, x) is continuous;
(iii) for almost all z ∈ Z and all x ∈ R, we have

|f (z, x)| ≤ a(z) + c|x|q−1

with a ∈ L∞ (Z)+ , c > 0, p+ < q < (p∗ )− ;


(iv) there exists ϑ ∈ (p+ , (p∗ )− ) such that

f (z, x)
lim sup < +∞
x→0 |x|ϑ−2 x

uniformly for a.a. z ∈ Z;


(v) for almost all z ∈ Z and all x 6= 0, f (z, x)x > 0 (strict sign
condition) and there exists δ0 ∈ (0, 1) such that, for almost all
z ∈ Z, x 7→ f (z, x) is increasing on [−δ0 , δ0 ];

The main result of this paper, asserts that problem (1) has at least three
nontrivial solutions. More precisely, we have:
Theorem 1 If hypotheses H(m) and H(f ) hold, then there exists λ∗0 > 0 such
that for 0 < ||m||∞ < λ∗0 , problem (1) has at least three distinct nontrivial
solutions

x0 ∈ int C+ , v0 ∈ −int C+ , y0 ∈ C01 (Z̄) and v0 < y0 < x0 .

Remark: Our result improves considerably the multiplicity theorem of Mi-


hailescu [17]. There, m(z) ≡ A > 0 for all z n∈ Z (i.e.,o m is constant),

f (z, x) = B|x|β−2 x with B > 0, p+ < b < min N, NN−p p
− and the author
proves the existence of only two nontrivial weak solutions. He obtains weak
solutions, because he requires that p ∈ K+ (Z̄). Here by strengthening the re-
quirement on the exponent (we assume p ∈ C 1 (Z̄)), we are able to guarantee
that the solutions we obtain are smooth.

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