Abstract
We consider a nonlinear Dirichlet problem driven by the -Laplacian and with a logistic reaction of the equidiffusive type. Under a nonlinearity condition on a quotient map, we show existence and uniqueness of positive solutions and the result is global in parameter . If the monotonicity condition on the quotient map is not true, we can no longer guarantee uniqueness, but we can show the existence of a minimal solution and establish the monotonicity of the map and its asymptotic behaviour as the parameter decreases to the critical value (the principal eigenvalue of ).
Keywords:
anisotropic operator; equidiffusive logistic reaction; uniqueness; minimal positive solution; anisotropic regularity MSC:
35J60; 35J65
1. Introduction
Let be a bounded domain with a -boundary . In this paper, we study the following anisotropic -equation with a logistic reaction
Here, with and by we denote the anisotropic p-Laplace differential operator defined by
In contrast to the isotropic p-Laplacian (that is, the exponent is constant function ), the anisotropic operator is not homogeneous and this makes anisotropic equations more difficult to deal with. Problem is driven by the sum of an anisotropic and of an isotropic operators. At the end of the paper, after having the complete picture of our method of proof, we comment on why we have the smaller exponent q to be constant (isotropic operator). It is an open problem, whether our work here can be extended to fully anisotropic equations. In the reaction (right hand side) of , is a parameter and the perturbation is with being Carathéodory function (i.e., measurable for all , and is continuous for a.a. ). We assume that is -superlinear. So, we see that the reaction of is of logistic-type and in particular it is equidiffusive since the power of the parameter term is the same as the exponent of the isotropic operator.
Logistic equations are important in mathematical biology. The semilinear parabolic logistic equation describes the evolution and spatial distribution of a biological population when constant rates of reproduction and/or mortality are present (Verhulst’s law; see Gurtin-Mac Camy []). For this reason, when we consider logistic equations, we are usually interested in positive solutions. More recently, evolution systems with logistic forcing terms have been studied as a model for the biological phenomenon of chemotaxis (see Tello-Winkler []). The elliptic equation examined in this paper models an equilibrium distribution (see Costa-Drábek-Tehrani []). In the past, most works on elliptic logistic equations deal with isotropic problems with a superdiffusive reaction (that is, a reaction of the form with ). They prove existence and multiplicity results which are global in (bifurcation-type result). We mention the works of Afrouzi-Brown [], Ambrosetti-Lupo [], Ambrosetti-Mancini [], Papageorgiou-Rǎdulescu-Repovš [], Rădulescu-Repovš [], (semilinear equations) and by Aizicovici-Papageorgiou-Staicu [], Dong [], Gasiński-O’Regan-Papageorgiou [], Iannizzotto-Papageorgiou [], Papageorgiou-Rǎdulescu [], and Takeuchi [,] (nonlinear equations). We also mention the works of Gasiński-Papageorgiou [] (double phase equations) and Iannizzotto-Mosconi-Papageorgiou [] (fractional equations). All the aforementioned works deal with superdiffusive problems.
The study of anisotropic logistic equations is lagging behind. There are no works in this direction. Only Papageorgiou-Rădulescu-Tang [] considered logistic equations driven by the -Laplacian and having a Robin boundary condition. They consider the superdiffusive case (that is, the parametric term with for all ). From the isotropic literature, we know that for such problems, we have a multiplicity of positive solutions. The authors in [] show that the same is true for -logisitic equations. They prove a multiplicity result which is global in the parameter (a bifurcation-type theorem), see Theorem 22 in []. In [], the equidiffusive case is studied only in the context of isotropic equations (that is, p is constant).
So, to the best of our knowledge, there are no earlier works on anisotropic equidiffusive logistic equations. Our work fills in the void in the literature. From the isotropic theory (see Kamin-Véron [], p-Laplace equations), we know that equidiffusive problems exhibit uniqueness properties.
Here, we deal with an equidiffusive equation and for such problems we have uniqueness of solutions. Indeed, here we prove a global existence and uniqueness result. More precisely, if denotes the principal eigenvalue of , we show that has a positive solution if and only if , and moreover, this solution is unique if the quotient function is strictly increasing on . Otherwise, we can show the existence of a minimal (smallest) positive solution . We also establish the monotonicity properties of the map and determine the asymptotic behaviour of as .
Finally, we explain why in our problem the smaller exponent q is constant. It is an interesting open problem whether the result remains true if this exponent is also variable.
2. Mathematical Background—Hypotheses
The study of anisotropic equations uses variable Lebesgue and Sobolev spaces. The complete theory of these spaces can be found in the book of Diening-Harjulehto-Hästö-Ružička [].
Let . Given , we set
By , we denote the space of all measurable functions . As usual, we identify two such functions which differ only on a Lebesgue-null set. Given , the variable Lebesgue space is defined by
We call the modular function corresponding to the exponent r. We equip this space with the so called “Luxemburg norm” defined by
With this norm, becomes a separable and reflexive Banach space. In fact, it is uniformly convex since is a uniformly convex function. If is the conjugate variable exponent to (that is, for all ), then we have , and the following Hölder-type inequality holds
If and for all , then continuously.
Using the variable Lebesgue spaces, we can define the corresponding variable Sobolev spaces. So, let . Then, the variable Sobolev space is defined by
By , we denote the weak gradient of u. We equip with the following norm
with . Furthermore, if (that is, r is Lipschitz continuous on ), then we define
Both spaces and are separable and reflexive Banach spaces (in fact uniformly convex). On , the Poincaré inequality holds. Namely, there exists such that
So, on , we consider the following equivalent norm
Let be the variable critical Sobolev exponent defined by
for all . We have the following extension to variable spaces of the classical Sobolev embedding theorem (see [] (p. 266)).
Proposition 1.
(a) If , with and for all , then continuously.
(b) If , with and for all , then compactly.
There is a close relation between the modular function
and the norm for all (see [] (p. 73)).
Proposition 2.
If , then
(a) ⟺ for all .
(b) (resp. , ) ⟺ (resp. , ).
(c) ⟹.
(d) ⟹.
(e) (resp. ) ⟺ (resp. ).
Given , we have
Let be the nonlinear operator defined by
This operator has the following properties (see Gasiński-Papageorgiou [] (Proposition 2.5)).
Proposition 3.
The operator is bounded (maps bounded sets to bounded sets), continuous, strictly monotone (thus maximal monotone too) and of type , that is, ” in and , imply that in ”.
In addition to the variable Lebesgue and Sobolev spaces, the anisotropic regularity theory of Fan [] will lead us to the space
This is an ordered Banach space with positive (order) cone
This cone has a nonempty interior given by
with , where n is the outward unit normal on .
Let , then we define
Evidently, , , and . If , then . Given , we write if for any compact set , we have
Note that if and for all , then .
Consider the following nonlinear eigenvalue problem
We know that (1) admits smallest eigenvalue which is isolated and simple. It has the following variational characterization:
The infimum in (2) is realized on the corresponding one dimensional eigenspace, the elements of which have a fixed sign. By , we denote the positive, -normalized (that is, ) eigenfunction corresponding to . The isotropic nonlinear regularity theory of Lieberman [] implies that . Finally, from the nonlinear maximum principle (see, for example, Gasiński-Papageorgiou [] (p. 736)), we have that .
Our hypotheses on the data of are the following:
: and
: is a Carathéodory function such that
(i) for a.a. , all , with , and for all ;
(ii) uniformly for a.a. ;
(iii) uniformly for a.a. ;
(iv) for every , there exists such that for a.a. , the map is nondecreasing on ;
(v) for a.a. , is strictly increasing on .
Remark 1.
Since we want to find positive solutions and the above conditions concern the positive semiaxis , without any loss of generality we may assume that for a.a. , all . Hypothesis implies that for a.a. . In the isotropic case (that is, p is constant), if for all , with , then we have the standard equidiffusive logistic equation. More generally, consider the function
with , for all . Then, satisfies hypotheses .
In what follows, is the nonlinear operator defined by
On account of Proposition 3, we know that V is bounded, continuous, strictly monotone (thus maximal monotone too) and of type .
3. Positive Solutions
We start with a nonexistence result.
Proposition 4.
If hypotheses , hold and , then problem has no positive solution.
Proof.
Arguing by contradiction, suppose that the parameter is admissible. Then, we can find , such that
Next, we prove existence and uniqueness of positive solutions for .
Proposition 5.
If hypotheses , hold and , then problem has a unique positive solution .
Proof.
Let and consider the -functional defined by
for all .
Since and , we see that is coercive. Furthermore, using Proposition 1, we see that is sequentially weakly lower semicontinuous. Therefore, by the Weierstrass–Tonelli theorem, we can find such that
On account of hypothesis , given , we can find such that
Recall that . So, for small, we have
Choosing , we obtain
for some . Since (see hypotheses ), choosing even smaller if necessary, we have
so
(see (4)) and thus .
In (7), we use the test function . Then,
so , .
From Fan-Zhao [], we know that . Then, the anisotropic regularity theory of Fan [] (extension of the isotropic theory of Lieberman []) implies that . Finally, the anisotropic maximum principle (see Zhang [] (Theorem 1.2)) and Papageorgiou-Rǎdulescu-Zhang [] (Proposition A.2)) implies that .
Next, we show that this positive solution is unique. To this end, we introduce the integral functional defined by
From Takáč-Giacomoni [] (Theorem 2.2), we know that j is convex. Let (the effective domain of j). If is another positive solution of , then again we have . Using Proposition 4.1.22 of Papageorgiou-Rǎdulescu-Repovš [] (p. 274), we have
Let . From (8), it follows that for small, we have
Then, exploiting the convexity of j, we can compute the directional derivatives of j at and in the direction h. Using Theorem 2.5 of Takáč-Giacomoni [], we have
and
The convexity of j implies the monotonicity of the directional derivative. Therefore, we have
so (see hypothesis ).
This proves the uniqueness of the positive solution of for all . □
4. Extremal Positive Solutions
If we drop hypothesis (the strict monotonicity of the quotient map on ), then we cannot guarantee the uniqueness of the positive solution of . In this case, we can show the existence of the smallest positive solution (minimal positive solution).
So, now our hypotheses on are the following:
is a Carathéodory function satisfying hypotheses –
These hypotheses imply that given , we can find such that
The growth restriction on leads to the following auxiliary Dirichlet problem
Since and , using Proposition 5, we have the following existence and uniqueness result for problem .
Proposition 6.
If hypotheses hold and , then problem has a unique solution .
Let denote the set of positive solutions of problem . We already know that
The unique solution of provides a lower bound for the elements of .
Proposition 7.
If hypotheses hold and , then for all .
Proof.
Let . We introduce the Carathéodory function defined by
We set and consider the -functional defined by
From (10), we see that is coercive. Furthermore, using Proposition 1, we see that is sequentially weakly lower semicontinuous. So, we can find such that
We know that . Using Proposition 4.1.22 of Papageorgiou-Rǎdulescu-Repovš [] (p. 274), we can find small so that
(recall that ). Then, from (10) and since , we see that
so
(see (11)) and thus .
In (12), we use and obtain
so , (see Proposition 2).
Using this lower bound, we can show the existence of a smallest (minimal) positive solution.
Proposition 8.
If hypotheses hold and , then problem has a smallest positive solution ; that is, for all .
Proof.
The set is downwardly directed (that is, if , then there exists such that , ; see Filippakis-Papageorgiou []). Using Theorem 5.109 of Hu-Papageorgiou [] (p. 308), we can find a decreasing sequence such that
We have
We examine the monotonicity of the minimal solution map and determine its asymptotic behaviour as .
Proposition 9.
If hypotheses hold, then
(a) the map is strictly increasing on ; that is,
(b) if , then in .
Proof.
(a) Let . First, we show that
The inequality follows from Proposition 7. Next, we show the inequality in (17). Note that
We introduce the Carathéodory function defined by
We set and consider the -functional defined by
As in the proof of Proposition (7), using (19) and the Weierstrass–Tonelli theorem, we can find such that
Let and let be as postulated by hypothesis . We have
(see (17) and (18)). Since and , we see that . So, from (21) and Proposition 2.3 of Papageorgiou-Winkert [], we infer that
therefore the map is strictly increasing on .
(b) Let . We have
Note that for , we have and so the anisotropic regularity theory of Fan [] implies that there exist and such that
Then, the compactness of the embedding and (22) imply that
□
5. Main Theorem—Conclusions
Summarizing our findings in this paper, we can state the following theorem concerning problem .
Theorem 1.
(a) If hypotheses hold and , then problem has a unique positive solution .
(b) If hypotheses hold and , then problem has the smallest positive solution , the map is strictly increasing and
Conclusions
In this paper, we studied anisotropic logistic equations of the equidiffusive type. Apparently, this is the first work of this kind in the literature. For equations driven by the -Laplacian, we show that we can have the uniqueness of the positive solution and more generally we show the existence of a minimal positive solution and determine the properties of the map .
If the second exponent is variable too, then we encounter serious difficulties and it is not clear to us how we can overcome them. First, the difficulty is that the spectral properties of are more complicated due to the nonhomogeneity of the operator. We need restrictive monotonicity conditions on q (see Fan-Zhang-Zao []). The second and more serious difficulty is that the anisotropic Diaz-Saa inequality of Takáč-Giacomoni [], does not work since . So, to prove the uniqueness and existence of minimal solutions, we need to come up with a new approach. We do not know if this is possible.
Author Contributions
Conceptualization, L.G. and N.S.P.; Methodology, N.S.P.; Validation, L.G. and N.S.P.; Formal analysis, L.G. and N.S.P.; Investigation, L.G. and N.S.P.; Resources, L.G. and N.S.P.; Data curation, N.S.P.; Writing—original draft, N.S.P.; Writing—review & editing, L.G.; Visualization, L.G.; Supervision, L.G.; Project administration, L.G. and N.S.P. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.
Funding
The second author was supported by the grant “Nonlinear Differential System in Applied Sciences” of the Romanian Ministry of Research, Innovation, and Digitization, within PNRR-III-C9-2022-I8 (Grant No. 22).
Data Availability Statement
Data are contained within the article.
Acknowledgments
The authors wish to thank the three anonymous referees for their critisism and remarks.
Conflicts of Interest
The authors declare no conflict of interest.
References
- Gurtin, M.E.; MacCamy, R.C. On the diffusion of biological populations. Math. Biosci. 1977, 33, 35–49. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
- Tello, J.I.; Winkler, M. A chemotaxis system with logistic source. Commun. Partial Differ. Equ. 2007, 32, 849–877. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
- Costa, D.G.; Drábek, P.; Tehrani, H.T. Positive solutions to semilinear elliptic equations with logistic type nonlinearities and constant yield harvesting in ℝN. Commun. Partial. Differ. Equ. 2008, 33, 1597–1610. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
- Afrouzi, G.A.; Brown, K.J. On a diffusive logistic equation. J. Math. Anal. Appl. 1998, 225, 326–339. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef][Green Version]
- Ambrosetti, A.; Lupo, D. On a class of nonlinear Dirichlet problems with multiple solutions. Nonlinear Anal. 1984, 8, 1145–1150. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
- Ambrosetti, A.; Mancini, G. Sharp nonuniqueness results for some nonlinear problems. Nonlinear Anal. 1979, 3, 635–645. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
- Papageorgiou, N.S.; Rădulescu, V.D.; Repovš, D.D. Positive solutions for superdiffusive mixed problems. Appl. Math. Lett. 2018, 77, 87–93. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
- Rădulescu, V.D.; Repovš, D. Combined effects in nonlinear problems arising in the study of anisotropic continuous media. Nonlinear Anal. 2012, 75, 1524–1530. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
- Aizicovici, S.; Papageorgiou, N.S.; Staicu, V. Nonlinear nonhomogeneous logistic equations of superdiffusive type. Appl. Set-Valued Anal. Optim. 2022, 4, 277–292. [Google Scholar]
- Dong, W. A priori estimates and existence of positive solutions for a quasilinear elliptic equation. J. Lond. Math. Soc. 2005, 72, 645–662. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
- Gasiński, L.; O’Regan, D.; Papageorgiou, N.S. A variational approach to nonlinear logistic equations. Commun. Contemp. Math. 2015, 17, 1450021. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
- Iannizzotto, A.; Papageorgiou, N.S. Positive solutions for generalized nonlinear logistic equations of superdiffusive type. Topol. Methods Nonlinear Anal. 2011, 38, 95–113. [Google Scholar]
- Papageorgiou, N.S.; Rădulescu, V.D. Positive solutions for nonlinear nonhomogeneous Neumann equations of superdiffusive type. J. Fixed Point Theory Appl. 2014, 15, 519–535. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
- Takeuchi, S. Positive solutions of a degenerate elliptic equation with logistic reaction. Proc. Am. Math. Soc. 2001, 129, 433–441. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
- Takeuchi, S. Multiplicity result for a degenerate elliptic equation with logistic reaction. J. Differ. Equ. 2001, 173, 138–144. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef][Green Version]
- Gasiński, L.; Papageorgiou, N.S. Double phase logistic equations with superdiffusive reaction. Nonlinear Anal. Real World Appl. 2023, 70, 103782. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
- Iannizzotto, A.; Mosconi, S.; Papageorgiou, N.S. On the logistic equation for the fractional p-Laplacian. Math. Nachr. 2023, 296, 1451–1468. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
- Papageorgiou, N.S.; Rădulescu, V.D.; Tang, X. Anisotropic Robin problems with logistic reaction. Z. Angew. Math. Phys. 2021, 72, 94. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
- Kamin, S.; Véron, L. Flat core properties associated with the p-Laplace operator. Proc. Am. Math. Soc. 1993, 118, 1079–1085. [Google Scholar]
- Diening, L.; Harjulehto, P.; Hästö, P.; Ružička, M. Lebesgue and Sobolev Spaces with Variable Exponents. In Lecture Notes in Mathematics 2017; Springer: Berlin/Heidelberg, Germany, 2011. [Google Scholar]
- Gasiński, L.; Papageorgiou, N.S. Anisotropic nonlinear Neumann problems. Calc. Var. Partial Differ. Equ. 2011, 42, 323–354. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
- Fan, X. Global C1,α regularity for variable exponent elliptic equations in divergence form. J. Differ. Equ. 2007, 235, 397–417. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
- Lieberman, G.M. The natural generalization of the natural conditions of Ladyzhenskaya and Ural’tseva for elliptic equations. Commun. Partial Differ. Equ. 1991, 16, 311–361. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
- Gasiński, L.; Papageorgiou, N.S. Nonlinear Analysis; Chapman & Hall/CRC: Boca Raton, FL, USA, 2006. [Google Scholar]
- Fan, X.; Zhao, D. A class of De Giorgi type and Hölder continuity. Nonlinear Anal. 1999, 36, 295–318. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
- Zhang, Q. A strong maximum principle for differential equations with nonstandard p(x)-growth conditions. J. Math. Anal. Appl. 2005, 312, 24–32. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
- Papageorgiou, N.S.; Rǎdulescu, V.D.; Zhang, Y. Anisotropic singular double phase Dirichlet problems. Discret. Contin. Dyn. Syst. Ser. S 2021, 14, 4465–4502. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
- Takáč, P.; Giacomoni, J. A p(x)-Laplacian extension of the Díaz-Saa inequality and some applications. Proc. R. Soc. Edinburgh Sect. A 2020, 150, 205–232. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
- Papageorgiou, N.S.; Rădulescu, V.D.; Repovš, D.D. Nonlinear Analysis—Theory and Methods; Springer Monographs in Mathematics; Springer: Cham, Switzerland, 2019. [Google Scholar]
- Filippakis, M.F.; Papageorgiou, N.S. Multiple constant sign and nodal solutions for nonlinear elliptic equations with the p-Laplacian. J. Differ. Equ. 2008, 245, 1883–1922. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
- Hu, S.; Papageorgiou, N.S. Research Topics in Analysis. In Grounding Theory; Birkhäuser/Springer: Cham, Switzerland, 2022; Volume I. [Google Scholar]
- Papageorgiou, N.S.; Winkert, P. Positive solutions for singular anisotropic (p, q)-equations. J. Geom. Anal. 2021, 31, 11849–11877. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
- Fan, X.; Zhang, Q.; Zhao, D. Eigenvalues of p(x)-Laplacian Dirichlet problem. J. Math. Anal. Appl. 2005, 302, 306–317. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
Disclaimer/Publisher’s Note: The statements, opinions and data contained in all publications are solely those of the individual author(s) and contributor(s) and not of MDPI and/or the editor(s). MDPI and/or the editor(s) disclaim responsibility for any injury to people or property resulting from any ideas, methods, instructions or products referred to in the content. |
© 2024 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).