On p-Laplace equations with concave terms and asymmetric perturbations

Abstract

We consider a nonlinear Dirichlet problem driven by the p-Laplace differential operator with a concave term and a nonlinear perturbation, which exhibits an asymmetric behaviour near +∞ and near −∞. Namely, it is (p − 1)-superlinear on ℝ₊ and (p − 1)-(sub)linear on ℝ₋. Using variational methods based on the critical point theory together with truncation techniques, Ekeland's variational principle, Morse theory and the lower-and-upper-solutions approach, we show that the problem has at least four non-trivial smooth solutions. Also, we provide precise information about the sign of these solutions: two are positive, one is negative and one is nodal (sign changing).