A concentration phenomenon for semilinear elliptic equations

Nils Ackermann, Andrzej Szulkin

Published 2012-06-14, updated 2012-06-18Version 2

For a domain $\Omega\subset\dR^N$ we consider the equation $ -\Delta u + V(x)u = Q_n(x)\abs{u}^{p-2}u$ with zero Dirichlet boundary conditions and $p\in(2,2^*)$. Here $V\ge 0$ and $Q_n$ are bounded functions that are positive in a region contained in $\Omega$ and negative outside, and such that the sets $\{Q_n>0\}$ shrink to a point $x_0\in\Omega$ as $n\to\infty$. We show that if $u_n$ is a nontrivial solution corresponding to $Q_n$, then the sequence $(u_n)$ concentrates at $x_0$ with respect to the $H^1$ and certain $L^q$-norms. We also show that if the sets $\{Q_n>0\}$ shrink to two points and $u_n$ are ground state solutions, then they concentrate at one of these points.