A nonsmooth variational approach to semipositone quasilinear problems in $\mathbb{R}^N$

Abstract: This paper concerns the existence of a solution for the following class of semipositone quasilinear problems \begin{equation*} \left { \begin{array}{rclcl} -\Delta_p u = h(x)(f(u)-a),\ & u > 0 & \mbox{in} & \mathbb{R}^N, \end{array} \right. \end{equation*} where $1<p<N$, $a\>0$, $ f:[0,+\infty) \to [0,+\infty)$ is a function with subcritical growth and $f(0)=0$, while $h:\mathbb{R}^N \to (0,+\infty)$ is a continuous function that satisfies some technical conditions. We prove via nonsmooth critical points theory and comparison principle, that a solution exists for $a$ small enough. We also provide a version of Hopf's Lemma and a Liouville-type result for the $p$-Laplacian in the whole $\mathbb{R}^N$.