The Brezis-Nirenberg problem for the curl-curl operator (Q1702568)

The paper studies the Brezis-Nirenberg problem for the curl-curl operator. The author show that there exist a cylindrically symmetric ground state solution and a finite number of cylindrically symmetric bound states depending on \(\lambda\leq 0\). A new critical point theory is developed which allows to analyse the monotonicity of ground state levels of general strongly indefinite functionals on the Nehari-Pankov manifold, and which provides the information about the existence and the multiplicity of critical points. This critical point theory can be applied to other variational problems. The time-harmonic Maxwell equation is studied in more general anisotropic media.