Nodal solutions to superlinear biharmonic equations via decomposition in dual cones (Q854514)

Motivated by nonlinear biharmonic boundary value problems, an abstract framework is introduced in order to find critical points of a functional \(\Phi:H\to{\mathbb R}\) defined in a Hilbert space \(H\) by \(\Phi(u)=\frac{1}{2}\| u\| ^2-\Psi(u)\). Here \(\Psi\) is locally Lipschitz and \(A=\nabla\Psi\) is such that \(A(0)=0\), \(A\) is compact and satisfies some growth assumptions in such a way that \(\Phi\) satisfies the Palais-Smale condition. By studying the negative gradient flow of \(\Phi\) and its invariant properties with respect to a cone \(K\), some conditions are stated so that one or three nontrivial critical points exist (in the latter case, belonging to \(K\), \(-K\) and \(H\setminus(K\cup-K)\), respectively). The arguments involve the dual cones of \(K\) and \(-K\), and deformation. In the case of even \(\Phi\), a Lusternik-Schnirelmann theory is established: provided that \(\Phi<0\) on the boundary of a large ball in some \(n\)-dimensional subspace, then there are \(n-1\) pairs of critical points outside \(K\cup-K\). The results are applied to the equation \(\Delta^2u=f(x,u)\) in a bounded domain \(\Omega\subset{\mathbb R}^N\), with boundary conditions (a) \(u=\Delta u=0\) on \(\partial\Omega\) or (b) \(u=\frac{\partial u}{\partial\nu}=0\) on \(\partial\Omega\). Here \(f(x,0)\equiv0\). \(f\) is locally Lipschitz and nondecreasing in \(u\) and satisfies a superlinearity condition. The Lipschitz constant near the origin is less than the first eigenvalue of the linear biharmonic problem. Then in case (a) a three-solution theorem is stated (one solution changes sign). If in addition \(f\) is odd in \(u\), there are infinitely many sign-changing solutions. In case (b), similar results are obtained for special domains such that the inverse of the linear underlying operator is positive. The orthogonal projection on the positive cone is used, yielding a splitting of any function of \(H^2(\Omega)\) into a positive and a negative summand. This technique has appeared in a paper by \textit{F. Gazzola} and \textit{H.-C. Grunau}, [NoDEA, Nonlinear Differ. Equ. Appl. 8, No. 1, 35--44 (2001; Zbl 0990.46021)]. Similar results had been obtained by \textit{T. Bartsch, Z. Liu} and the author [Commun. Partial Differ. Equations 29, No. 1--2, 25--42 (2004; Zbl 1140.35410)] for second order elliptic problems.