On the fourth order semipositone problem in $\mathbb{R}^N$

Abstract

For $N \geq 5$ and $a>0$, we consider the following semipositone problem \begin{align*} \Delta^2 u= g(x)f_a(u) \text { in } \mathbb{R}^N, \, \text{ and } \, u \in \mathcal{D}^{2,2}(\mathbb{R}^N),\ \ \ \qquad \quad \mathrm{(SP)} \end{align*} where $g \in L^1_{loc}(\mathbb{R}^N)$ is an indefinite weight function, $f_a:\mathbb{R} \to \mathbb{R}$ is a continuous function that satisfies $f_a(t)=-a$ for $t \in \mathbb{R}^-$, and $\mathcal{D}^{2,2}(\mathbb{R}^N)$ is the completion of $\mathcal{C}_c^{\infty}(\mathbb{R}^N)$ with respect to $(\int_{\mathbb{R}^N} (\Delta u)^2)^{1/2}$. For $f_a$ satisfying subcritical nonlinearity and a weaker Ambrosetti-Rabinowitz type growth condition, we find the existence of $a_1>0$ such that for each $a \in (0,a_1)$, (SP) admits a mountain pass solution. Further, we show that the mountain pass solution is positive if $a$ is near zero. For the positivity, we derive uniform regularity estimates of the solutions of (SP) for certain ranges in $(0,a_1)$, relying on the Riesz potential of the biharmonic operator.