Infinitely many solutions of Dirichlet problem for \(p\)-mean curvature operator (Q1413698)

Let \(\Omega\) be a bounded domain in \({\mathbb R}^n\) with smooth boundary \(\partial \Omega\). The authors consider the following Dirichlet problem for the \(p\)-mean curvature operator: \[ -\text{div} ((1+|\nabla u|^2)^{\frac{p-2}{p}} \nabla u) = f(x, u), \quad x \in \Omega, \qquad u\in W^{1,p}_0(\Omega) \quad (n>p>1). \] Note that in case \(p=2\), the problem is reduced to the classical Dirichlet problem. In such a problem, some standard techniques or tools like Palais-Smale (PS) condition of the Mountain Pass Theorem, Ambrosetti-Rabinowitz (AR) condition, or Palais-Smale-Cerami (PSC) condition are known and these conditions are useful in handling such a problem. With some conditions about the growth of \(f(x, u)\), but a little weaker condition than the (AR)-condition, for instance, \(\frac{f(x, s)}{|s|^{p-1}s} \to \infty\) as \(s \to \infty\), etc., the authors prove that the problem described above has infinitely many solutions. The solutions correspond to the critical points of the \(C^1(W^{1,p}_0(\Omega), {\mathbb R})\) functional \[ I(u) = \frac{1}{p} \int_\Omega [(1+|\nabla u|^2)^{1/2} -1] dx - \int_\Omega F(x, u) dx, \] where \(F(x, s) = \int_0^s f(x, t) dt\). The authors observe that there are different phenomena appearing in the cases \(p> 2\) and \(p < 2\). In case \(p >2\), the (AR)-condition can be easily weakened and the functional \(I(u)\) has the geometry of the Mountain Pass Theorem, but which fails to hold for \(p < 2\). In case \(p <2\), the authors overcome this difficulty by considering a symmetric version of the Mountain Pass Theorem.