Radial solutions of quasilinear Hardy--Emden--Fowler equations: exact decay rates, Delaunay solutions, and nonexistence

Abstract

Let $N>p>1$, $s>-p$, $0<\mu<\bar\mu:=\big(\frac{N-p}{p}\big)^{p}$ and $q>p-1$. We determine the behaviour at infinity of \emph{every} positive solution of the quasilinear Hardy--Emden--Fowler equation \[ -\big(r^{N-1}|v'|^{p-2}v'\big)'=\mu\,r^{N-1-p}v^{p-1}+r^{N-1+s}v^{q}, \qquad r>R_{0}. \] Three rates compete: the self-similar rate $r^{-\gamma_{*}}$ with $\gamma_{*}=\frac{p+s}{q-p+1}$, and the two Hardy rates $r^{-\nu_{\pm}}$, where $\nu_{\pm}$ are the roots of $h(\nu):=\nu^{p-1}(N-p-(p-1)\nu)=\mu$. Writing $p^{*}_{s}=\frac{p(N+s)}{N-p}$ and $q_{S}=p-1+\frac{p+s}{\nu_{+}}$ for the Hardy--Sobolev and Serrin exponents, we obtain a complete picture in four regimes. If $q>p^{*}_{s}-1$, every solution realises exactly one of the three rates, with a logarithmic correction in the borderline case $h(\gamma_{*})=\mu$, and we compute the leading constants. If $q=p^{*}_{s}-1$ the system becomes integrable: besides the singular self-similar solution and a heteroclinic ``bubble'' there is a one-parameter family of Fowler--Delaunay solutions, for which $r^{\gamma_{*}}v(r)$ is a non-constant periodic function of $\ln r$. If $q_{S} 0\}$ for every $1<p<N$, so that no restriction of the type $p\le2$ is needed; the analysis then rests on a universal barrier $x<\nu_{+}$, on an explicit Dulac function which degenerates into a first integral exactly at $q=p^{*}_{s}-1$, and on an explicit Lyapunov function.