Multiplicity of solutions for a nonhomogeneous quasilinear elliptic equation with concave-convex nonlinearities

TL;DR

This paper studies multiple solutions for a nonlinear elliptic equation involving a nonhomogeneous operator relevant in nonlinear optics, demonstrating existence of positive and negative solutions using variational methods and fibering maps.

Contribution

It introduces a novel analysis of a nonhomogeneous quasilinear operator with concave-convex nonlinearities, establishing multiple solutions including ground states.

Findings

Existence of at least one positive energy solution.

Existence of a negative energy ground state solution.

Overcoming difficulties related to nonhomogeneity and convergence issues.

Abstract

We investigate the multiplicity of solutions for a quasilinear scalar field equation with a nonhomogeneous differential operator defined by \begin{eqnarray} Su:=-\mbox{div}\left\{\phi \left(\frac{u^{2}+|\nabla u|^{2}}{2}\right)\nabla u\right\}+\phi\left (\frac{u^{2}+|\nabla u|^{2}}{2}\right)u, \end{eqnarray} where $\phi:[0,+\infty)\rightarrow\mathbb{R}$ is a positive continuous function. This operator is introduced by C. A. Stuart [Milan J. Math. 79 (2011), 327-341] and depends on not only $\nabla u$ but also $u$. This particular quasilinear term generally appears in the study of nonlinear optics model which describes the propagation of self-trapped beam in a cylindrical optical fiber made from a self-focusing dielectric material. When the reaction term is concave-convex nonlinearities, by using the Nehari manifold and doing a fine analysis associated on the fibering map, we obtain that the equation admits at least one positive energy solution and negative energy solution which is also the ground state solution of the equation. We overcome two main difficulties which are caused by the nonhomogeneity of the differential operator $S$: (i) the almost everywhere convergence of the gradient for the minimizing sequence $\{u_{n}\}$; (ii) seeking the reasonable restrictions about $S$.