Ground state solutions for the singular Lane-Emden-Fowler equation with sublinear convection term

We are concerned with singular elliptic equations of the form $-\Delta u= p(x)(g(u)+ f(u)+|\nabla u|^a)$ in $\RR^N$ ($N\geq 3$), where $p$ is a positive weight and $0< a <1$. Under the hypothesis that $f$ is a nondecreasing function with sublinear growth and $g$ is decreasing and unbounded around the origin, we establish the existence of a ground state solution vanishing at infinity. Our arguments rely essentially on the maximum principle.