In this paper, we study a fourth-order singular problems of type Leray–Lions with singular weight and with no-flux boundary conditions.
We use the Nehari manifold to establish our result for our problem.
We prove that there exist at least two nontrivial positive weak solutions.
In particular, it investigates the problem in the presence of singular weights and variable exponents, a case that has not been extensively studied in the existing literature.
1. Introduction
In this article, we study the following problem.
where is a bounded domain containing the origin with sufficiently smooth boundary and Δ(a(x, Δu)) is the fourth-order Leray–Lions operator, is a positive weight function and λ is a real parameter. The variable exponents .
The Leray–Lions-type operator is a more quiet general in the fourth-order, we can take for example a(x, t) = h(x)|t|p(x)−2t, when h(x) = 1 and t = Δu the above operator turns into the operator (the p(x) − biharmonic operator), for mor details about Leray–Lions type operators one can see Refs. [1–4].
It should be noted that this type of problem is very active in several domains, such electrorheological fluids [5], elastic materials [6] and stationary thermo-rheological viscous flows [7].
In the last few years, various authors have studied this kind of problem; in the case of exponents constant, one can see Refs. [8, 9]. In 2020, Mokhtar, M. E. [10] studied the existence of solution by using variational approaches and utilizing the Pohozaev identity to show the nonexistence of solution for the following p-Laplace singular problem
Moreover, many authors have studied problems similar to our problem; in the case of variable exponents, see for example [11–15]. In 2023, Repovš, D. D. and Saoudi, K. [16]. studied this p(x)-Laplace singular problem
They used the Nehari manifold technique to demonstrate their results for the problem (PN).
We start by giving the assumptions that we will consider for our problem.
(H1) .
where and , for all .
(H2) Ns(x) < β(x) < N.
(b) b ∈ L∞(Ω) and strictement positive in Ω.
(A1) is a Carathéodory function and a(x, 0) = 0 for a.e. .
(A2) there exists c1 > 0 such that
such that
(A3) [a(x, s) − a(x, t)](s − t) ≥ 0 holds for all and a.e. x ∈ Ω with equality if and only if s = t.
(A4) There exist and a non-negative function d(x) ∈ Lp′(x)(Ω), such that
for all and d(x) that verifies .
(A5) is homogeneous of degre p(x), that is , .
Under the above hypotheses, we give our main result.
Suppose that (A1) − (A5), (H1), (H2) and (b) hold. Then there exists a positive constants λ⋆ such that the problem (PV) has at least two positive solutions for each .
The structure of this article is as follows: Section 2 presents key background results concerning variable exponent Lebesgue and Sobolev spaces, along with a compact embedding theorem of the Sobolev–Hardy type. Section 3 introduces the essential lemmas required for our analysis. We then establish that the energy functional achieves its minimum on both and . We conclude with the proof of our main result.
2. Preliminaries
In this part, we review several fundamental properties and definitions of Lebesgue and Sobolev spaces with variable exponents. For further details, readers are encouraged to consult the comprehensive studies in Refs. [17–20].
In this study, we denote by M(Ω) the set of all real-valued functions that are measurable with respect to the Lebesgue measure on Ω, and we suppose that:
(H) p is log-Hölder continuous, satisfying 1 < p− ≤ p+ < ∞.
That is, there exists k > 0 such that
Let b ∈ M(Ω) satisfies the condition (b), we define the space:
equipped with the norm,
is a Banach space. For more details on this norm, (see for example [20], Theorem 2.5 and Corollary 2.7).
Additionally, we can establish the following inequality,
for all u ∈ Lp(x)(Ω) and v ∈ Lp′(x)(Ω), (see Ref. [20], Theorem 2.1).
We denote by the closure of in W1,p(x)(Ω).
Taking into account the log-Hölder countinuity of the exponent p(x), we have
As a consequence of the Poincaré inequality, and |▽u|p(x) are equivalent norms on . Therefore, for any , we can define an equivalent norm such that
and which makes a separable and reflexive Banach space (see Ref. [21], Proposition 2.1).
The following lemma is very important.
Let us consider r(x), and
Then .
Proof. We notice such that ϵ > 0 is a constant small enough (see Ref. [21]). Let u ∈ W2,p(x)(Ω). Set .
Then (2) implies and by Theorem 2.3 (in Ref. [19]) we have W2,p(x)(Ω)↪↪Lh(x)(Ω), then for u ∈ W2,p(x)(Ω) we have and, from inequality 1, from inequality, one can see that
This proves .
Now let (un) ⊂ W2,p(x)(Ω) and un ⇀ 0 in W2,p(x)(Ω). Using Theorem 2, we find that un → 0 in Lh(x)(Ω), and from this, we get . Then
that implies . Therefore, we have .
when . Then .◽
This result indicates the existence of a positive constant note Cp such that,
where ± = + if , and ± = − if .
Throughout this paper, we opted for the norm:
where b(x) satisfies (b), this norm represents on both W2,p(x)(Ω) and and we can see by relation (3) that is equivalent to . We will search for the solutions of problem (PV) in this space.
is a reflexive and separable Banach space ([23]). As a result, we take into account the modular such that
The following inequalities have a significant connection to the norm ‖.‖b, (see for example [23], Proposition 1). If u ∈ W2,p(x)(Ω) then:
We define the functional such that
To see the properties of this functional, refer to ([1], Proposition 3; 5 and Theorem 3.2).
3. Some necessary lemmas
u ∈ Y is a weak solution of problem (PV) if
for all υ ∈ Y.
For the problem (PV), the energy functional is defined as
where
The weakly lower semi-continuous function T has a Gâteaux derivative that is defined by
for all υ ∈ Y.
T is not in because of the singular term in I1.
For some problems, like (PV), T may not be bounded below on Y, but it does possess a bounded below on Nλ, such that
u ∈ Nλ if and only if
We see that all solutions to the problem (PV) are included in Nλ.
Defined ϕu(t) = T(tu),
As a result, it makes sense to divide Nλ into the following three parts.
.
T is bounded below on Nλ and is coercive.
Proof. Lemma 1 and (A2) provide us, if u ∈ Nλ such that ‖u‖b > 1.
With C1 = min{1, c1}, since 1 − s+ < p−, then T(u) → +∞ when ‖u‖b → +∞.◽
Given u as a local minimum of T on subsets or , where u is not an element of , it follows that u represents a critical point of T.
Proof. Assume that, under the given restriction, u is a local minimizer of T.
Thus, we use the theory of Lagrange multipliers to prove that there exists that satisfies
Consequently,
From this , it follows that . As a result, μ = 0.◽
There is λ0 such that, and , for every 0 < λ < λ0.
Proof. Initially, applying Lemma 3, we can infer that for λ ∈ (0, λ0). Now since u ∈ Nλ, we deduce the following
Assuming with ‖u‖b > 1. By combining the above equality with (6), under the conditions (A1) and (A4), we get
Hence
Since u ∈ Nλ and since , we get
such that C3 = min{(q− − 1)c1 − c0(p+ − 1), q− − p+}, hence
Using the above inequality, we find
we get
Then, if λ small enough, we obtain ‖u‖b < 1, which is impossible. Therefore, for all λ ∈ (0, λ0). Hence, this proof is complete.◽
Now let us show that the energy functional T in has a minimum. Furthermore, we will demonstrate that this minimum corresponds to a solution for the problem (PV).
There is for any λ ∈ (0, λ0), which satisfies
Proof. Consider λ ∈ (0, λ0), it follows that T is bounded below on Nλ and, consequently on . Hence, we can establish the existence of a sequence , satisfying as n → ∞. T is coercive on Nλ and {un} is bounded in V; by utilizing lemma 1, we deduce the following
First we will show that
Let , then , which gives
We can write
We multiply (6) with s+, we obtain
Replacing the inequality (14) in the previous inequality, we get
and by the conditions A2 and A4, we have
such that , then by the definition of the function d and the above inequality, we get
Assume that strongly in Y. Then
We use the compact embedding to derive the following
and by (A2), we get
which C5 = min{c1, 1}, now passing n → ∞, we obtain
using Theorem 2.3 in Ref. [24], we get
Since p− > 1 − s+, which give a contradiction. Therefore, un → u0 in Y and
Second, we shall now prove that the functional energy T in is at a minimum.◽
for every λ ∈ (0, λ0), there exists satisfying
Proof. Consider that λ ∈ (0, λ0); thus, it follows T, which is bounded below on . Consequently, there exists , with as n → ∞. T is coercive in Nλ, {un} is bounded in V; therefore, we can assume that using un → u1 in Y by lemma 1, we obtain
Currently, prove that un → u1 in Y. First, we will show that
Let , then from (6), we give
Then
As we have p− > 1 − β+, we can make the following choice.
We obtain T(u1) > 0. Moreover, since and , then . The same, if ; hence, there is t1, satisfying and so T(t1u1) ≤ T(u1).
we get
Since 1 − s+ < p+ < q−, ; so by definition of , we have
Now, let us assume that in Y, we know that
which gives us
This contradicts with ; hence, un → u1 in Y and .
◽
4. Proof of theorem 1
Proof. Invoking Theorems 3 and 4, we can conclude that for every λ ∈ (0, λ0), there exist and such that
On the one hand, considering the properties of the function T, we can assume that u0 and u1 are non-negative, and by applying Lemma 2, we can show that they are critical points of T on the set Y, which makes them weak solutions of the problem (PV). Using the Harnack inequality and the results of Zhang-Liu [25], we can then demonstrate that u0 and u1 are non-negative solutions of (PV).
Since , we conclude that u0, u1 must be distinct. Thus, we have demonstrated that the solutions u0 and u1 obtained from Theorem 3 and Theorem 4 are indeed different. Consequently, Theorem 1 has now been completely proved.◽
The anonymous editors and referees who thoroughly examined this work and offered helpful criticism are acknowledged by the authors.

