Principal Eigenvalue of p-Laplacian Operator in Exterior Domain

Abstract

We consider an eigenvalue problem of the form $$\left.\begin{array}{cl}-\Delta_{p} u = \lambda\, K(x)|u|^{p-2}u \quad \mbox{in}\quad \Omega^e\\ u(x) =0 \quad \mbox{for}\quad \partial \Omega\\ u(x) \to 0 \quad \mbox{as}\quad |x| \to \infty,\end{array} \right \}$$ where \({\Omega \subset \mathrm{I\!R\!}^N}\) is a simply connected bounded domain, containing the origin, with C2 boundary \({\partial \Omega}\) and \({\Omega^e:=\mathrm{I\!R\!^N} \setminus \overline{\Omega}}\) is the exterior domain, \({1 < p < N, \Delta_{p}u:={\rm div}(|\nabla u|^{p-2} \nabla u)}\) is the p-Laplacian operator and \({K \in L^{\infty}(\Omega^e) \cap L^{N/p}(\Omega^e)}\) is a positive function. Existence and properties of principal eigenvalue λ1 and its corresponding eigenfunction are established which are generally known in bounded domain or in \({\mathrm{I\!R\!}^N}\). We also establish the decay rate of positive eigenfunction as \({|x| \to \infty}\) as well as near ∂Ω.