Infinitely many solutions to Kirchhoff-Boussinesq-type equations on Riemannian manifolds

Abstract

We study Kirchhoff-Boussinesq-type equations on closed Riemannian manifolds $(M,g)$ of the form \[ \sum_{j=0}^m a_i(-\Delta_g)^m u \pm \text{div}_g(\vert\nabla u\vert_g^{p-2}\nabla u) = f(u),\qquad \text{ on }\ M, \] where $m<\dim M/2$, $(a_0,a_1,\ldots a_m)\in C^\infty_+(M)\times [0,\infty)^{m-1}\times(0,\infty)$, $2<p\leq\frac{2\dim M}{\dim M- 2}$ and $f:\mathbb{R}\rightarrow\mathbb{R}$ is a continuous nonlinearity of superlinear type with subcritical or critical Sobolev growth. We briefly motivate the above equation in the case of $m=2$, as an extension of the stationary Kirchhoff-Boussinesq equation when modeling the dynamics of curved elastic plates. Under some symmetry assumptions, we prove the existence of multiple equivariant solutions when considering critical Sobolev nonlinearities and, for subcritical ones, we also prove the existence of ground-state solutions. As a byproduct, we prove a Gagliardo-Nirenberg interpolation inequality and give several equivalent norms on the higher order Sobolev space $H_g^m(M)$.