Existence and Nonexistence Breaking Results For a Weighted Elliptic Problem in Half-Space

Abstract

In this paper we study the problem $-\mathrm{div}(\rho(x_N)\nabla u)=a|u|^{p-2}u$ in $\mathbb{R}^N_+$, $-\partial u/\partial x_N=b|u|^{q-2}u$ in $\mathbb{R}^{N-1}$ where $a,b \in \mathbb{R}$, $p,q\in (1,\infty)$ and $\rho$ is a positive weight. We establish regularity results for weak solutions and, using a variational approach combined with a new Pohozaev-type identity, we show that the introduction of the weighted operator $-\mathrm{div}(\rho(x_N)\nabla u)$ can reverse the known solvability behavior of the classical Laplacian case. Specifically, we identify regimes where the problem admits solutions despite nonexistence for the corresponding case with $-\Delta$, and vice versa, thus inverting the classical existence and nonexistence results.