Critical conditions and finite energy solutions of several nonlinear elliptic PDEs in Rn

This paper is concerned with the critical conditions of nonlinear elliptic equations and the corresponding integral equations involving Riesz potentials and Bessel potentials. We show that the equations and some energy functionals are invariant under the scaling transformation if and only if the critical conditions hold. In addition, the Pohozaev identity shows that those critical conditions are the necessary and sufficient conditions for existence of the finite energy positive solutions. Finally, we discuss respectively the existence of the negative solutions of the k-Hessian equations in the subcritical case, critical case and supercritical case. Here the Serrin type critical exponent and the Sobolev type critical exponent play key roles. (c) 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.