Bubbling nodal solutions for a large perturbation of the Moser-Trudinger equation on planar domains

Abstract: In this work we study the existence of nodal solutions for the problem $$ -\Delta u = \lambda u e^{u^2+|u|^p} \text{ in }\Omega, \; u = 0 \text{ on }\partial \Omega, $$ where $\Omega\subseteq \mathbb R^2$ is a bounded smooth domain and $p\to 1^+$. If $\Omega$ is ball, it is known that the case $p=1$ defines a critical threshold between the existence and the non-existence of radially symmetric sign-changing solutions. In this work we construct a blowing-up family of nodal solutions to such problem as $p\to 1^+$, when $\Omega$ is an arbitrary domain and $\lambda$ is small enough. As far as we know, this is the first construction of sign-changing solutions for a Moser-Trudinger critical equation on a non-symmetric domain.