Constant sign and nodal solutions for nonlinear elliptic equations with combined nonlinearities

Abstract

We study a parametric nonlinear Dirichlet problem driven by a nonhomogeneous differential operator and with a reaction which is ”concave” (i.e., (p − 1)− sublinear) near zero and ”convex” (i.e., (p − 1)− superlinear) near ±1. Using variational methods combined with truncation and comparison techniques, we show that for all small values of the parameter > 0, the problem has at least five nontrivial smooth solutions (four of constant sign and the fifth nodal). In the Hilbert space case (p = 2), using Morse theory, we produce a sixth nontrivial smooth solution but we do not determine its sign.