We consider the problem
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where Omega is a bounded smooth domain in R-N, epsilon>0 is a Small paramet
er, and f is a superlinear, subcritical nonlinearity. It is known that this
equation possesses boundary spike solutions that concentrate, as epsilon a
pproaches zero, at a critical point of the mean curvature function H(P), P
is an element of partial derivative Omega. It is also proved that this equa
tion has single interior spike solutions at a local maximum point of the di
stance function d(P, partial derivative Omega), P is an element of Omega. I
n this paper, we prove the existence of interior K- peak (K greater than or
equal to 2) solutions at the local maximum points of the following functio
n phi(P-1, P-2, ..., P-K) = min(i,k,l=1, ..., K; k not equal l) (d(P-i, par
tial derivative Omega), 1/2\P-k - P-l\). We first use the Liapunov-Schmidt
reduction method to reduce the problem to a finite dimensional problem. The
n we use a maximizing procedure to obtain multiple interior spikes. The fun
ction phi(P-1, ..., P-K) appears naturally in the asymptotic expansion of t
he energy functional. (C) 1999 Academic Press.