On some nonlinear potential problems

Abstract

The degree theory of mappings is applied to a two-dimensional semilinear elliptic problem with the Laplacian as principal part subject to a nonlinear boundary condition of Robin type. Under some growth conditions we obtain existence. The analysis is based on an equivalent coupled system of domain--boundary variational equations whose principal parts are the Dirichlet bilinear form in the domain and the single layer potential bilinear form on the boundary, respectively. This system consists of a monotone and a compact part. Additional monotonicity implies convergence of an appropriate Richardson iteration.

Keywords

• Nonlinear elliptic boundary value problems
• degree ofmappings
• finite element - boundary element approximation.