Rend. Sem. Mat. Univ. Poi.

Torino
Voi. 51, 4 (1993)
Partial Diff. Eqs.

M. Badiale

SOME REMARKS ON ELLIPTIC PROBLEMS

WITH DISCONTINUOUS NONLINEARITIES

Abstract. In this paper we study some semilinear elliptic equations with discontinuous
nonlinearity and lack of compactness (see problem (1) below). We apply the methods of
K.C.Chang and generalize some results we got in a previous paper.

1. Introduction

In this paper we pursue the work we began in [B]. We studied there the following kind
of problems:
j -Au = \u\2*~2u + f(u) in Q
\ u{x)>0, ue HÌ(Q)
where Q, C RN is a bounded open set, 2* = -^^ and f(u) can have discontinuities, so that
the functional usually associated to problems like (1) is not differentiable. This fact prevents
the application of standard variational techniques.
We recali that there is a large literature on elliptic problems with discontinuous
nonlinearities; several methods have been proposed to overcome the lack of differentiabiltty of
the functional associated to (1): see for example [AB], [ACD], [ASt2], [AT], [AmT], [Cel],
[Ce2], [Chi], Ch2], [Ch3], [L], [St], [StT].
In [B] we focused our attenti on on the interplay between discontinuity and lack of compactness.
The criticai growth in (1) prevents usuai compactness properties. It is well known that for
such problems several existence and non existence result have been obtained (assuming /
continuous); furthemore it is now clear that there is a delicate dependence of these results on
the data of problem (1): on the topology of Q or the properties of / , for example. A little
change in these data can force the change from non existence to existence of solutions (see
[BC], [BrN], [CS], [CeFS], [Co], [SI], [T] and the book of M.Struwe [S2] for an idea on these
subjects). What we did in [B] is to show that also the presence of a discontinuity on / can
force existence of solutions: for example we find solutions in the case f(u) — bh(u - a),
where o, 6 are parameters and h is Heaviside function.
332 M. Badiale

In [B] we studied problem (1) for simple discontinuous nonlinearities (f(u) =

bh(u — a)). We proved existence of solutions for particular ranges of parameters a, b. We
used there a "dual variational principle" (see [AB], [AS], [AStl] for the use of dual variational
principle in elliptic problems).
In the present paper we use the method of generalized gradients introduced, for elliptic
PDE's, by K.C.Chang (see [Chi], [Ch2], [Ch3]). We generalize our previous results in two
directions.
As first thing we get existence results for more general nonlinearities. In particular if
we define f{u~) — X\xx\x^u- f{x), / ( u + ) = limx_,u+ f{x), then the method of [B] works
in the hypothesis f(u~) < f(u) < f(u+), while in the present paper we don't need such
hypothesis.
As second thing we get some more general results also for the simple case f(u) —
bh(u — a), by a refinement of the argument. Indeed the existence results of [B] are obtained
for large fr's and small a's (see [B] for a precise formulation). In the present paper, on the
contrary, we prove existence of solution for ali b > 0 (and small a's; see theorem 3.1 below).
See also [M] for similar results.
We recali that if f(u) = b \/u and b is large then there is no solution to (1):. this can
be easily seen directly. So in this case it seems that the existence of a solution is forced by
the discontinuity. For general non existence results one can see [KC],- [CR], [Me], [Z].
The paper is organized as follows: section 1 is the introduction and section 2 gives the
basic statements of the method of K.C.Chang. In section 3 we generalize the results of [B].

2. Notations and basic results

We begin by recalling definition and main properties of generalized gradient. For the
proofs and general references see ([Chi], [Ch2], [Ch3], [CU], [C12], [C13]).

Let X be a real Banach space, let X' be its dual space and < .,. > be the duality. Let
/ : X —> R be a locally Lipschitz function. For x, v e X the generalized directional derivative
f°(x, v) (of / at x along v) is defined as follows:

f°(x, v) = limsup \[f(x +h + \v)- f(x + h)].

/i->0,A|0 A

The following basic properties hold:

d) The function v —» f°(x,v) is subadditive, positively homogeneus (so it is convex), and
3K > 0 such that \f°(x, v)\ < K\\v\\ for ali v e X.

We introduce the following definition:

Some remarks on elliptic problems 333

DEFINITION 2.1. The generalized gradient of f at x, denoted df(x), is deflned as

follows:
df(x) c X'\ w e df(x) ifand only if < w, v > < f°(x, v), Vv e X .

Remark that df(x) is the subdiffereiuial of the convex function v —• f°{x, v) at 0, in the sense
of convex analysis. We recali some properties of df, which are proved in [CU], [C12], [C13],
[Chi].

L EMMA 2.2. Ttie following properties hold:

di) d(Xf)(x) = Xdf{x) VA e R.
à>2) If f,Q (ire locally Lipschitz functions then d(f -f- g)(x) C df{x) •+- dg(x).
^3) If f is convex df(x) coincideswith the subdifferential of f in the sense of convex
analysis.
d4) For each v e X it is f°(x,v) = max{< C,,v > \C, e df(x)}.
ds) If x is a locai minimum pointfor f then 0 e df(x) (here 0 is the zero element of
X').
c^) Iff is dijferentiable in x and f'(x) e X' is the differential, then df(x) = {f'(x)}.
We also give a definition of criticai point
DEFINITION 2.3. x is a criticai pointfor f ifO e df(x) (here 0 is the zero element
ofX').
We shall state in the next section a sort of "variational principle", that is we shall see
that a criticai point in the sense just defined gives a suitable solution of problems like (1).
We give now some notations. For any A e IR^ \A\ is the iV-dimensional Lebesgue
measure of A. For R > 0 we define BR = {x e UN | \x\ < R} and B = Bt. Throughout this
paper h(u) : R—• R is the following function: h{u) = 0 if u < 0, h{u) — 1 if u > 0. We
shall denote Ài the first eigenvalue of - A on Q, and <^i an eigenfunction such that <f>\ > 0
and Ìn4>\ — 1. We shall cali C (or Ci, i = 1,2,..) any positive Constant we shall use. By
o(l) we denote a real vanishing sequence.

3. An existence result
In this section we shall study problem (1) assuming the hypotheses (ai) below
(i = 1, ...,6). We shall prove the existence of a solution to (1), in a suitable sense. The
main result of this section is theorem 3.1 (see also remark 3.11).
We shall use the following assumptions:
334 M. Badiale

(ai) fìc RN is a regular (say C2,/3) bounded open set.

(0:2) / is a measurable function such that Vu e R there exist the limits:

lim f(x) = fin-)] lim f(x) = f(u+).

(a 3 ) BCUC2 > 0, 3<r e ] l , $±§[ such that |/(u)| < d + CfeM".

(«4) /(w) = 0 if u < 0 and there are a, 6 > 0 such that f(u) > bh(u — a) Wu e R.
/ \ 1. f(u)
(a5) hmsup n _ >0 < Ai.
Defìne F(u) = /0U /(*) cfó. Define /(w) = liminfa.-Mi f(x), f(u) — limsupa.^^ f(x).
Then we assume
(«e) FH^—/(w)w Vnel.

Note that F(w) is a locally Lipschitz function. By hypothesis «2) it is f_(u) —

min{/(u~), /(w + )}, /(w) = max{/(u~),/(n + )}. It is easy to see that'/(u)' is lower
semicontinuous, / is upper semicontinuos so they are both N-measurable. See [Chi], [Ch2],
[Ch3] for a definition of A^-measurability.
We consider the usuai space Hl(Vt) with norm ||w||2 — / n \Vu\2dx and we introduce
the functional:

I(u) = \ ( \Vv\2dx - 1 / | n f de - / F{u)dx- (u e H^Q)) .

By Chang's results we can state that. / is locally Lipschitz and the generaiized gradient
dl(u) is obtained as follows.

PROPOSITION 3.1. Lei u e H*(Q) and a' = ——, Tìxen w e dl(u) if and only if
G
a
there is w e L ' such that

<w,v>= / VuVvdx — l \u\2 ~2uvdx — j wv dx Vv 6 Hl(£ì)

Jet Ja Ja
and
w(x) e ll(u(x))J(u(x))} for a.e. x e Ci.

N -\- 2
Note that the integrai fnwv is well defined Vv e Ho(tl); indeed, as 1 < a < ——-,
. . a -f-1 2N «. r9*
it is > ——-, while v e H- itnphes
y v e Lz .
a N +2 °
In an obvious way we derive what follows.
Some remarks on elliptic problems 335

2N
PROPOSITION 3.2. Lei u e H$(Q) be a criticai point for I. Then u e W^2,^+2(Q)
and
(3.1) -Au(ai) - \u(x)\2*-2u(x) G H(u(x))J(u(x))] for a.e. x€Q.

We shall adopt (as usuai in this kind of problems) property (3.1) as definition of a
solution of (1). So we give the following definition:

DEFINITION 3.3. A solution of (1) is a u G H^{Q) n W2ì^(Q,) such that u>0

and (3.1) holds.

REMARK 3.4. In many cases we can get from (3.1) more information on solutions.
Suppose that / is discontinuous in just one point, say a > 0. If u is a solution in the sense
of the previous definition, define Qa = {x € Ci \u(x) = a}. By well known results (see for
example [Sp], [GT]) we get A«(a;) = 0 a.e. on Qa. Recalling that f(u)> 0 Vw we get from
JV+2
77
(3.1) - a ^ > o a.e. on Qa. This is a contradiction unless |fì 0 | = 0. In this case from (3.1)
we get
-Au(x) = \u(x)\2*~2u(x) + f(u(x)) for a.e.a; G £1.
The argument can be repeated if the set of points where / is discontinuous is countable (and
does not contains 0).
We want now to get a non trivial non negative criticai point of /. We shall get it by
usuai Mountain-Pass theorem, as it was adapted to nondifferentiable functionals by K.C.Chang.
We begin by recalling some results.

LEMMA3.5. Lei u G H£(Q) and X(u) = inf ;{\\w\\H-i \w e dl(u)}. Then

3w G dl(u) such that \(u) — \\w\\H-i.

For the proof of lemma 3.5 see [Chi].

DEFINITION 3.6. Let (3 G R / satisfies Palais-Smale condition at level /3 (briefly,

(PS)p) ifforany sequence {un}n e HQ(Q) such that I(un) —* (3 and \{un) —> 0, there exists
a subsequence of {un}n strongly convergine in HQ(Ù).

As usuai in these problems we define

122
, fr> |Vw| dx , 1y v
S = inf{ / " ' ' ugffin^O.}
2
(/n M dx)2*
The following proposition gives a basic compaetness result.

PROPOSITION 3.7. Assume hypotheses (ai), («2), (^3), (ae). If fi < Tf^"5"» then I
satisfies (PS)p.
336 M. Badiale

Proof. Let {un}n be a sequence as in definition 3.5. Let us first prove that {un}n is
bounded in HQ(Q). Let wn e dl(un) such that ||w n ||tf-i = A(wn) = o(l). From proposition
3.1 we have
(3.2) C(ì + IKH) > I(un) - ^ < wnìun >= ( ì - ^ ) | K I | 2 + J ( ^ u n - F(un)).

where
(3.3) w^(x)e[l(un(x))J(un(x))] for a.e. x.

By hypothesis (ae) we get

WZ(x)u
v n(x)v > —l(un(x))un(x) > F(Un(x)) .
2* ' ' — o* —
Then (3.2) gives
1 1
c(n-|K||)>(--
2 2*
n\\ ?

which implies that {||n n ||} n is bounded.

Up to subsequences we have that 3u0 e Hl(Q) such that un * uo in Ho* un —* ito in
L9(f2) for q < 2* and wn(^) —* w0(a;) for a.e. re. In particular, by continuity and subcriticai
growth of F (hypothesis (aa)), we have

/ F{un)dx —> / F(u0)dx; I F{un — uQ)dx —> 0 .

Jn JQ JÙ
We also gel
(3.4) . « 0 € W 2 '^fe(.n), and - A^fa;) - M * ) f ~V>(*) € [/K(rc)) J(u 0 (:c))] .
To get (3.4) we remark that it is
(3.5) . ^ \wZ{x)\<C1+C2\un(x)\<r a.e..

This derives from (0:3) and (3.3). {un}n is bounded in L2*, so (3.5) implies that
{^n}n is bounded in L 2 */ a , so it converges, weakly in L2*^a, to Wo. It is easy to get
lim infn W^(.T) < w^(:e) < l i m s u p n ^ ( x ) for a.e. re and then
£(u0(x)) < u%(x) < f(u0(x)) a.e..

Recali that Proposition 3.1 gives

(3.6) < wn,v >= I VunVvdx — I \un\ ~ unv dx — l rn^vdx, \/v E Hi .

It is H^nll/f-i —» 0, wn -* uQ and w^ —«• ~w^ in L2*la. As v e Hi and 1 < <T,<

it is v e L2* c L^*^ = (L2*/ay, so passing to the limit in (3.6) we get

0 = / Vu0S7vdx — j |w0| ~2uQvdx — ì w^vdx, Vv 6 Hi ,

Some remarks on elliptic problems 337

so we get (3.4).
From now on we can apply the usuai arguments one can flnd, for example, in the book
of M.Struwe ([S2] pag 161-162). We give just a sketch of the argument. As first thing we get,
from the equation above,

IM = i\ - ^)J\u\r + JÀ^U" ~ FM)dx > o.

We also nave
/ \Wun\2dx = I \V(un-u0)\2dx + / \Vu0\2dx-\-o(l);
JQ JQ Jet

! |?/ n | 2 dx — l \un — u0\2 dx -f- / |u 0 | 2 dx-\-o{l)

I {Un\un\2 ~2 — U0\u0\2*~2)(un — U0) = I \un - UQ\2 dx + o ( l ) .

JCÌ Jn
1 1
If we define J(u) = I(u) + Jn F(u) = - fQ |Vu\ 2 -—/<-> \u\2\ from the above
equations we get
I(un) = I(u0)-\-J(un-u0)-\-o(l),

(3.7) o(l) = < wniun -u0 > = / \V(un-u0)\2 - / |u n -u 0 | 2 *da; + o(l),

and
J(un -u0) = ^ J \V{un - u0)\2 + o(l.)

We get also, for large n's,

1 N_
J{un-u0) = I{ùn)-I(u0) + o(l)<c + e<—S* .

Then
(3.8) \\un-u0\\2 < e' < S% .

By an application of Sobolev's inequality, the definition of S, (3.7) and (3.8) it is now

easy (see [S2]) to get
IK-^oll 2 -^o.
The proof is over. •

As we said, we want to get a solution of (1) by Mountain Pass theorem. To do this we

want to get a minimax level standing below the "criticai" level jjS~2.
Consider g(t) = I(t(pi), j(t) = J(*<£i), (£•> 0), so that
a 4T
g(t)<j(t) = Xit--t—Jj2*dx.
338 M. Badiale

Obviously we get that 3T > 0 such that g(T) < 0.

We define now
(3.9) r = { 7 G C°([0,1],Hi) 17(0) = 0, 7 (1) = 2Vi}; e = inf max J ( 7 ( i ) ) .

In the following proposition we prove that, for suitable values of the parameters a, b
(see definition (0:4)), it is e < JJST.
PROPOSITION 3.8. V6 > 0 3a* == a*(b) > 0 and 3T = T(b) > 0 such that
Vó€]0,-a*[iM*,s c< ~zjS^ (e is definedin(3.9)).

Proof. We shall prove that, for suitable choices of a and T, it is max{I(^i) \t e

[0,T]} < JT'ST*
N'
which obviously implies the thesis.
By trivial arguments we get:
Ai \ ^
j(t) has a strict maximum in t* — \ ' * ] ; j(t) striclty increases for t < t*, striclty
\J 0i /
decreases for t> t*.

Remark that j is independent from a, b. Remark also that b is fixed and we have to
choose a and T. T must satisfy T > 0 and I(T<j>i) < 0. We choose T satisfying what follows:
j) T<t\
dx
j.i) *iY--Tfn&
•7; <j
~^— r, 4>\ dx S*.
<f—,
Jf2
2 2* N
m x£-^-j^dx-bTj^<o.
It is clear that it is possible to satisfy 3), jj), jjj) if T is small enough. Now T is fixed
and we want to choose a* = a*(b). It is trivial to see that b fQ(T(f>i - a)+dx —> bfQT(/>i as
a —• 0. So we can choose a* = a*(b) such that
j-2 j-2* • r /•
Va €]0,.a*[ it is Ar-— - — r / ttfdx -b / (7>i - a)+dx < 0 .

As F{u)> b{u — a ) + for ali n e E, this means that for these choices of T, a* it is
g(T) = I(T<j>1)<0, VaG]0,a*[.

Now we want to estimate max{/(^i) \t e [0,T]}. As T < t*, j(t) is increasing in

[0,T], so that, recalling jj), we get

HtM =. i(t) - f Fit^dx < j{t) < j(T)

Jet
Sì
j>2 ji2"
= Ai J tf dà: < ±0, V*e[0,T]
This proves the lemma. •
Some reniarks on ellìptic probleins 339

Until now we nave proved tliat I satisfies (PS)C, where e is the usuai minimax level
defined above, for suitable choices of a and T. In the list of basic ingredients for Mountain
Pass theorem we stili need one, which is given by the following proposition:

PROPOSITION 3.9. There are a, p > 0 such that I(u) >a Vu e H„, \\u\\= p.

Proof. By hypotheses (0:3), (as) and usuai arguments we nave

/(«) = \fL \Vu?dx -z 1 / \uféc - j F(u)

Jn Jn JQ

>~l \Vu\2dx - C\( [ \Vu\2dx)*i- _ c2(.f |Vii| 2 dar)^ +/x / \Vu\2dx

2 Jfj Jn JQ Jn
where p < \, so that

/(«) > (J - ^)ii«n2 - cn«ir + i (i+IMI 2 *-'- 1 ) .

The thesis is then an obvious consequence. •

To apply the usuai arguments of Mountain Pass theorem we need a Deformation Lemma
for locally Lipschitz functionals. One can find it in [Chi]. For reader's convenience we give
the statement of a suitable Deformation Lemma (Proposition 3.10 below).
Define As = {u e Hl(Q)\l(u) < s}, a € IR and Ks = {u e H*({l)\I(u) = s, 0 e
dI(u)}.Ks is the set of criticai points at level s. We want to prove that Kc ^ 0, if e is
defined as in (3.9). We argue by contradiction and we suppose Kc = 0. We use the following
proposition.

PROPOSITION 3.10. If Kc = 0 and I satisfies (PS)C, then V£0 > 0 3e e]0, e0[ and
an homeomorphism 11 ofHl such that :
1) r){u) = u Vu ^ Ac+eo\Ac-£o.
2) r)(Ac+e) C Ac-e.

For the proof see [Chi].

We nave now ali we need. We can get a contradiction by usuai arguments that we don't
repeat (see the celebrated paper [AR] or [S2]). The contradiction derives from the hypothesis
Kc — 0. So it must be Kc ^ 0 and we can state what follows.

THEOREM 3.1. Assume (a») (« = 1, -,6). Let b > 0, let T,a* be as in Proposition
3.7 and a e ]0, o*[. Let a be as in proposition 3.8. Let e = c(a, b) be as in (3.9). Then e > a
and there is UÒ e Hi such that I(u) = e and 0 e dl(u0).
340 M. Badiale

REMARK 3.11. u0 is a solution of problem (1), in the sense of definition 3.3. It

remains only to verify that u0 > 0, but this is easy. Let us consider u+,u~, the positive and
negative parts of u0. We want to prove u~ = 0. Let us suppose by contradiction u~ ^ 0. We
know that
(3.10) -Au0(x) = \u0(x)\2*~2u0(x)+ù%(x) a.e.
and wZ(x) e [f{u0(x))ì f(uQ(x))], which implies w^(x)u~(x) = 0 Va?. Multiplying (3.10) by
u~ and integrating we get

f \V(u:fdx= ( \u~0fdx.
JQ Jn
By definition of S we then have

f \V(u~)\2dx >S(f \u~fdx)£ = S{ f \V{u-)\2dx)&

Jet Jet Jn
that is, (if u~ ^ 0)

( / |V(ti-)| 2 dx) 1 - I T > S that is f \Vu~\2(h: > 5 ^ .

We also have (from (3.10))

/ \Vu0\2dx = / |w0|2 dx + / w0u0dx

Jn Jn Jn
and then
1 1. f . .„ f 1
IM = {\ - ^r) j \Vu0\2dx + j {^w-0Uo - F(u0))d.
ìx>
~ÌL WOf** + ììb Muo)\2dx > 1 jf \V(u-)\2dx > ±S

This is a contradiction because we know I(u0) = e < jjS^-.

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Marino BADIALE
Università degli Studi di Padova, Dipartimento di Matematica Pura e Applicata
Via Belzoni 7, 35131 Padova, Italy.

Pervenuto in redazione il 15.7.1993.