Existence of solutions for a class of noncoercive variational-hemivariational inequalities arising in contact problems (Q2232785)

In this paper, the authors consider a class of noncoercive variational-hemivariational inequalities on a Banach space, proving existence results for the abstract inequalities. More precisely, let \(K\) be a nonempty, bounded, closed, convex subset of a Banach space \(X\), \(Y\) be another Banach space, \(j:X\rightarrow Y\) be a linear, compact map. Let \(A:X\rightarrow\mathcal{P}(X^*)\) be a pseudomonotone operator in the sense of Brezis, \(f\in X^*\), and \(\phi:X\rightarrow\mathbb{R}\cup\{+\infty\}\) be a proper convex, lower semi continuous function. The first main result of this paper shows that if \(J:Y\rightarrow\mathbb{R}\) is a locally Lipschitz function, then the problem \[ \langle u^*-f,v-u\rangle + J^0(ju; jv-ju)+\phi(v)-\phi(u)\ge 0, \forall v\in K \] has at least one solution \(u\in K\). In their second main result, the authors assume, in addition, that a certain set \(R(A,f,J,\phi,K)\) is empty, and prove, without the assumption that \(K\) is bounded, that the problem above has at least one solution. The authors then prove a third existence result, under different assumptions. The key ingredients in their proofs are arguments of recession analysis, monotonicity and pseudomonotonicity in the sense of Brezis. Finally, an application to a nonsmooth elastic contact problem is presented.