Extremal functions for the sharp Moser--Trudinger type inequalities in whole space $\mathbb R^N$

Abstract

This paper is devoted to study the sharp Moser-Trudinger type inequalities in whole space $\mathbb R^N$, $N \geq 2$ in more general case. We first compute explicitly the \emph{normalized vanishing limit} and the \emph{normalized concentrating limit} of the Moser-Trudinger type functional associated with our inequalities over all the \emph{normalized vanishing sequences} and the \emph{normalized concentrating sequences}, respectively. Exploiting these limits together with the concentration-compactness principle of Lions type, we give a proof of the exitence of maximizers for these Moser-Trudinger type inequalities. Our approach gives an alternative proof of the existence of maximizers for the Moser-Trudinger inequality and singular Moser-Trudinger inequality in whole space $\mathbb R^N$ due to Li and Ruf \cite{LiRuf2008} and Li and Yang \cite{LiYang}.