Weak linking. (Q1413960)

The authors consider \({\mathcal{C}}^1\)-functionals \(G:E\to\mathbb R\) defined on a separable Hilbert space \(E\) so that \(G':E\to E\) is weakly sequentially continuous. By definition, a subset \(A\) of \(E\) links \(D\subset E\) weakly if each such \(G\) satisfying \(\text{{sup}}\, G(A)\leq\text{{inf}}\,G(B)\) has a \((PS)_c\)-sequence for some \(c\geq\text{{inf}}\,G(B)\). For instance, if \(E=M\oplus N\) is the direct sum of closed linear subspaces then \(A=\partial B_r\cap N\) links \(B=M\) weakly; here \(\partial B_r\) denotes the boundary of the closed ball of radius \(r>0\) in \(E\). \(M\) and \(N\) may both be infinite-dimensional. The same is true for \(A=(B_R\cap N)\cup\{s w_0+v: v\in N\), \(s\geq 0\), \(\| s w_0+v\| =R\}\) and \(B=\partial B_r\cap M\), some \(w_0\in M\setminus\{0\}\), \(0<r<R\). The main result yields an abstract condition on \(A\) on \(B\) to link weakly which contains these and other examples as special cases. As an application the authors consider the semilinear equation \(Au=f(x,u)\) in \(\Omega\subset\mathbb R^n\) where \(A\) is a selfadjoint operator in \(L^2(\Omega)\) having \(0\) in its resolvent set, and \(f(x,t)\) is asymptotically linear as \(t\to\pm\infty\).