Positive solutions of indefinite semipositone problems via sub-super solutions

Abstract

Let $\Omega\subset\mathbb{R}^{N}$, $N\geq1$, be a smooth bounded domain, and let $m:\Omega\rightarrow\mathbb{R}$ be a possibly sign-changing function. We investigate the existence of positive solutions for the semipositone problem \[ \left\{ \begin{array} [c]{lll} -\Delta u=\lambda m(x)(f(u)-k) & \mathrm{in} & \Omega,\\ u=0 & \mathrm{on} & \partial\Omega, \end{array} \right. \] where $\lambda,k>0$ and $f$ is either sublinear at infinity with $f(0)=0$, or $f$ has a singularity at $0$. We prove the existence of a positive solution for certain ranges of $\lambda$ provided that the negative part of $m$ is suitably small. Our main tool is the sub-supersolutions method, combined with some rescaling properties.