Explicit solutions and multiplicity results for some equations with the $p$-Laplacian

Abstract

We derive explicit ground state solutions for several equations with the $p$-Laplacian in $R^n$, including (here $\varphi (z)=z|z|^{p-2}$, with $p>1$) \[ \varphi \left(u'(r)\right)' +\frac{n-1}{r} \varphi \left(u'(r)\right)+u^M+u^Q=0 \,. \] The constant $M>0$ is assumed to be below the critical power, while $Q=\frac{M p-p+1}{p-1}$ is above the critical power. This explicit solution is used to give a multiplicity result, similarly to C.S. Lin and W.-M. Ni [11]. We also give the $p$-Laplace version of G. Bratu's solution [3]. In another direction, we present a change of variables which removes the non-autonomous term $r^{\alpha}$ in \[ \varphi \left(u'(r)\right)' +\frac{n-1}{r} \varphi \left(u'(r)\right)+r^{\alpha} f(u)=0 \,, \] while preserving the form of this equation. In particular, we study singular equations, when $\alpha <0$. The Coulomb case $\alpha=-1$ turned out to give the critical power.