In this note, we prove the Payne-type conjecture about the behaviour of the nodal set of least energy sign-changing solutions for the equation $-\Delta _p u = f(u)$ in bounded Steiner symmetric domains $ \Omega \subset {{\open R}^N} $ under the zero Dirichlet boundary conditions. The nonlinearity f is assumed to be either superlinear or resonant. In the latter case, least energy sign-changing solutions are second eigenfunctions of the zero Dirichlet p-Laplacian in Ω. We show that the nodal set of any least energy sign-changing solution intersects the boundary of Ω. The proof is based on a moving polarization argument.

We study the semilinear Schrödinger equation

$$\left\{ _{u\,\,\in \,\,{{H}^{1}}({{\mathbf{R}}^{N}}),}^{-\Delta \,u+V(x)u=f(x,u),\,\,\,\,\,x\in \,\,{{\mathbf{R}}^{N}},} \right.$$

where $f$ is a superlinear, subcritical nonlinearity. It focuses on the case where $V(x)={{V}_{0}}(x)+{{V}_{1}}(x)$, ${{V}_{0}}\in C({{\mathbf{R}}^{N}}),\,{{V}_{0}}(x)$ is 1-periodic in each of ${{x}_{1}},{{x}_{2}},...,{{x}_{N}}$, $\sup [\sigma (-\Delta +{{V}_{0}})\,\cap \,(-\infty ,0)]<0<$$\inf [\sigma (-\Delta +{{V}_{0}})\cap (0,\infty )],\,{{V}_{1}}\in C({{\mathbf{R}}^{N}})$, and ${{\lim }_{|x|\to \infty }}\,{{V}_{1}}(x)=0$. A new super-quadratic condition is obtained that is weaker than some well-known results.

This paper is concerned with the following elliptic system of Hamiltonian type

$$\left\{ \begin{align} & -\Delta u+V\left( x \right)u={{W}_{v}}\left( x,u,v \right),\,x\in {{\mathbb{R}}^{N}}, \\ & -\Delta v+V\left( x \right)v={{W}_{u}}\left( x,u,v \right),\,x\in {{\mathbb{R}}^{N}}, \\ & u,v\in {{H}^{1}}\left( {{\mathbb{R}}^{N}} \right), \\ \end{align} \right.$$

where the potential $V$ is periodic and $0$ lies in a gap of the spectrum of $-\Delta +V,W\left( x,u,v \right)$ is periodic in $x$ and superlinear in $u$ and $v$ at infinity. We develop a direct approach to finding ground state solutions of Nehari–Pankov type for the above system. Our method is especially applicable to the case when

$$W\left( x,u,v \right)=\sum\limits_{i=1}^{k}{\,\int _{0}^{\left| \alpha iu+\beta iv \right|}\,{{g}_{i}}\left( x,\,t \right)t\text{d}t+\sum\limits_{j=1}^{l}{\int_{0}^{\sqrt{{{u}^{2}}+2{{b}_{juv+aj{{v}^{2}}}}}}{{{h}_{j}}\left( x,t \right)tdt,}}}$$

where ${{\alpha }_{i}},{{\beta }_{i}},{{a}_{j}},{{b}_{j}}\in \mathbb{R}$ with $\alpha _{i}^{2}+\beta _{i}^{2}\ne 0$, and ${{a}_{j}}>b_{j}^{2},{{g}_{i}}\left( x,t \right)$ and ${{h}_{j}}\left( x,t \right)$ are nondecreasing in $t\in {{\mathbb{R}}^{+}}$ for every $x\in {{\mathbb{R}}^{N}}$ and ${{g}_{i}}\left( x,0 \right)={{h}_{j}}\left( x,0 \right)=0$.

We consider a quasilinear elliptic problem of the form

where λ > 0 is a parameter, 1 < p < 2 and Ω is a strictly convex bounded domain in ℝN, N > p, with C2 boundary ∂Ω. The nonlinearity f : [0, ∞) → ℝ is a continuous function that is semipositone (f(0) < 0) and p-superlinear at infinity. Using degree theory, combined with a rescaling argument and uniform L∞a priori bound, we establish the existence of a positive solution for λ small. Moreover, we show that there exists a connected component of positive solutions bifurcating from infinity at λ = 0. We also extend our study to systems.

Consider the second order superlinear dynamic equation

$$(*)\,\,\,\,\,\,\,\,\,\,\,\,\,\,\,\,\,\,\,\,\,\,\,\,\,\,\,\,\,\,\,\,\,\,\,\,\,\,\,\,\,\,\,\,\,\,\,\,\,\,\,\,\,\,\,\,\,\,\,\,{{x}^{\Delta \Delta }}(t)+p(t)f(x(\sigma (t)))=0$$

where $p\,\in \,C(\mathbb{T},\,\mathbb{R})$, $\mathbb{T}$ is a time scale, $f\,:\,\mathbb{R}\,\to \,\mathbb{R}$ is continuously differentiable and satisfies ${{f}^{'}}(x)>0$, and $x\,f\,(x)\,>\,0$ for $x\,\ne \,0$. Furthermore, $f(x)$ also satisfies a superlinear condition, which includes the nonlinear function $f(x)\,=\,{{x}^{\alpha }}$ with $\alpha \,>\,1$, commonly known as the Emden–Fowler case. Here the coefficient function $p(t)$ is allowed to be negative for arbitrarily large values of $t$. In addition to extending the result of Kiguradze for $\left( * \right)$ in the real case $\mathbb{T}\,=\,\mathbb{R}$, we obtain analogues in the difference equation and $q$-difference equation cases.