Variational and non-variational eigenvalues of the \(p\)-Laplacian (Q2466485)

This paper is concerned with nonlinear eigenvalue problems \[ \Delta_p u \;= \;(q-\lambda r) | u| ^{p-1} \text{sgn}\;u \quad\text{in }\Omega, \] for which not all eigenvalues are of variational type in the sense of Ljusternik-Schnirelman (1934; Zbl 0011.02803); see e.g. \textit{H. Amann} [Math. Ann. 199, 55--71 (1972; Zbl 0233.47049)]. Here \(\Delta_p\) is the \(p\)-Laplacian with \(1<p\neq 2\), \(\Omega\) is a smooth domain in \(\mathbb R^N\), and \(\;q,r\in C^1(\overline{\Omega})\) are coefficients with \(r>0\) on \(\overline{\Omega}\). Some examples are given for ordinary differential equations with periodic boundary conditions and partial differential equations with Neumann boundary conditions, in the case of non-constant coefficients. Moreover, for the periodic problem, the variational eigenvalues are characterized via an extremal property within the set of Carathéodory eigenvalues.