Existence of positive solutions to a Laplace equation with nonlinear boundary condition

Abstract

The positive solutions of a Laplace equation with a superlinear nonlinear boundary condition on a bounded domain are studied. For higher-dimensional domains, it is shown that non-constant positive solutions bifurcate from a branch of trivial solutions at a sequence of bifurcation points, and under additional conditions on nonlinearity, the existence of a non-constant positive solution for any sufficiently large parameter value is proved by using variational approach. It is also proved that for one-dimensional domain, there is only one bifurcation point, all non-constant positive solutions lie on the bifurcating curve, and for large parameter values, there exist at least two non-constant positive solutions. For a special case, there are exactly two non-constant positive solutions.