Multiple solutions of hemivariational inequalities with area-type term (Q1572877)

The aim of the present paper is to obtain existence and multiplicity results for hemivariational inequalities associated with functionals which come from the relaxation of, say, \[ f(u)= \int_\Omega \sqrt{1+|Du|^2} dx+ \int_\Omega G(x,u) dx, \] \(u\in W^{1,1}_0(\Omega; \mathbb{R}^n)\), \(\Omega\) open in \(\mathbb{R}^n\), \(n\geq 2\). The first feature is that the functional \(f\) does not satisfy the Palais-Smale condition in \(\text{BV}(\Omega; \mathbb{R}^n)\), the natural domain of \(f\), as it is already known in the case of equations. Therefore \(f\) is extended to \(L^{{n\over n-1}}(\Omega; \mathbb{R}^n)\) with value \(+\infty\) outside BV. This larger space is better behaved for compactness properties, but the nonsmoothness of the functional increases. The second feature is that the assumption imposed on \(G\) implies the second term of \(f\) to be continuous on \(L^{{n\over n-1}}\) but not locally Lipschitz. These difficulties are overcome, in a very smart and subtle way, by applying some general results in the framework of the ``nonsmooth critical point theory'' recently introduced by M. Degiovanni and developed in many directions by Degiovanni himself with various contributions of other researchers of his school.