The boundary trace and generalized boundary value problem for semilinear elliptic equations with coercive absorption

In the first part of the paper we establish the existence of a boundary trace for positive solutions of the equation ?Δu + g(x, u) = 0 in a smooth domain Ω ? ?^N, for a general class of positive nonlinearities. This class includes every space independent, monotone increasing g which satisfies the Keller‐Osserman condition as well as degenerate nonlinearities g_α,q of the form g_α,q (x, u) = d(x, ?Ω)^α |u|^q?1 u, with α > ?2 and q > 1. The boundary trace is given by a positive regular Borel measure which may blow up on compact sets. In the second part we concentrate on the family of nonlinearities {g_α,q}, determine the critical value of the exponent q (for fixed α > ?2) and discuss (a) positive solutions with an isolated singularity, for subcritical nonlinearities and (b) the boundary value problem for ?Δu + g_α,q (x, u) = 0 with boundary data given by a positive regular Borel measure (possibly unbounded). We show that, in the subcritical case, the problem possesses a unique solution for every such measure. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.