On the positive solutions to some quasilinear elliptic partial differential equations

Abstract

We establish that the elliptic equation $\Delta u+f(x,u)+g(|x|)x\cdot \nabla u=0$, where $x\in {\mathbb{R}}^n$, $n\ge 3$, and $|x|>R>0$, has a positive solution which decays to 0 as $|x|\to +\infty$ under mild restrictions on the functions $f,g$. The main theorem extends and complements the conclusions of the recent paper [M. Ehrnström, O.G. Mustafa, On positive solutions of a class of nonlinear elliptic equations, Nonlinear Anal. TMA 67 (2007), 1147--1154]. Its proof relies on a general result about the long-time behavior of the logarithmic derivatives of solutions for a class of nonlinear ordinary differential equations and on the comparison method.