Weak Solutions for Nonlinear Neumann Boundary Value Problems with $p(x)$-Laplacian Operators

Abstract

We study the nonlinear Neumann boundary value problem with a $p(x)$-Laplacian operator \[ \begin{cases} \Delta_{p(x)}u + a(x)|u|^{p(x)-2}u = f(x,u) &\textrm{in $\Omega$}, |\nabla u|^{p(x)-2} \dfrac{\partial u}{\partial\nu} = |u|^{q(x)-2}u + \lambda |u|^{w(x)-2}u &\textrm{on $\partial \Omega$}, \end{cases} \] where $\Omega \subset \mathbb{R}^N$, with $N \geq 2$, is a bounded domain with smooth boundary and $q(x)$ is critical in the context of variable exponent $p_*(x) = (N-1)p(x)/(N-p(x))$. Using the variational method and a version of the concentration-compactness principle for the Sobolev trace immersion with variable exponents, we establish the existence and multiplicity of weak solutions for the above problem.