A class of semipositone $p$-Laplacian problems with a critical growth reaction term

We prove the existence of ground state positive solutions for a class of semipositone $p$-Laplacian problems with a critical growth reaction term. The proofs are established by obtaining crucial uniform $C^{1,\alpha }$ a priori estimates and by concentration compactness arguments. Our results are new even in the semilinear case $p=2$.