Existence and critical points in a general setting (Q1900709)

The variational approach in solving different nonlinear problems leads to the application of critical point theory. The author proves the existence of critical points for a general locally Lipschitz functional usually arising in nonlinear elliptic problems. The main existence result (Theorem 1) extends and presents in a unifying setting the related results of \textit{A. Ambrosetti} and \textit{P. H. Rabinowitz} [J. Funct. Anal. 14, 349-381 (1973; Zbl 0273.49063)], \textit{K. C. Chang} [J. Math. Anal. Appl. 80, 102-129 (1981; Zbl 0487.49027)], \textit{P. H. Rabinowitz} [`Minimax methods in critical point theory with applications to differential equations', AMS Providence (1986; Zbl 0609.58002)] and \textit{A. Szulkin} [Ann. Inst. Henri Poincaré, Anal. Non Linéaire 3, 77-109 (1986; Zbl 0612.58011)]. The applications to discontinuous elliptic equations containing both sublinear and superlinear terms, integro- differential equations and nonlinear elliptic systems are considered.