The Fredholm alternative at the first eigenvalue for the one dimensional \(p\)-Laplacian (Q1283967)

The authors study the boundary value problem \[ (|u'|^{p-2}u')'+\lambda_1|u|^{p-2}u=h(t),\quad u(0)=u(T)=0, \tag{1} \] with \(p>1\) and \(\lambda_1\) is the first eigenvalue of the \(p\)-Laplacian. Let \(\sin_p(\pi_pt/T)\) be the corresponding eigenfunction. It is proved that if \(h\in{\mathcal C}^1[0,T]\), \(h\neq 0\), satisfies \[ \int_0^Th(t)\sin_p(\pi_pt/T) dt=0, \tag{2} \] then (1) has at least one solution and if \(p\neq 2\), the solution set is bounded in \({\mathcal C}^1[0,T]\). Also, condition (2) is not necessary. For \(p\neq 2\), there exists an open cone \(C\subset L^{\infty}(0,T)\) such that for all \(h\in C\), (2) is not satisfied and problem (1) has at least two solutions. A second type of results concerns the action functional \[ E(u)= \frac{1}{p}\int_0^T|u'|^p -\frac{\lambda_1}{p}\int_0^T|u|^p +\int_0^Thu, \qquad u\in W_0^{1,p}(0,T). \] For \(1<p<2\), \(E\) is unbounded from below and the set of critical points is nonempty and bounded. If \(p>2\), \(E\) is bounded from below, has a global minimizer, the set of critical points is bounded but the Palais-Smale condition does not hold at level 0.