Nonnegative Solutions for Weakly Nonlinear Elliptic Equations

Abstract

Let x = (x1, … xn) denote a point of Euclidean n space En and set Di = ∂/∂xi for i = 1, … n. Let Ω denote an exterior domain in En with smooth boundary and consider in Ω the formal elliptic problem:1We first consider the problem of finding nonnegative generalized solutions of (1) when τ ≧ 0, τ ≢ 0, and r(x) ≡ 0. Under more stringent conditions on the coefficients and for suitable r(x), we then show the existence of a locally bounded solution. Next, we show that, under stronger assumptions, our main criterion is also necessary. The final arguments are devoted to the consideration of illustrative examples.