A variant of the mountain pass theorem and its application to Hammerstein integral equations (Q2365275)

Let \(X\) be a Banach space. A functional \(\varphi\in C^1(X,\mathbb{R})\) is said to satisfy the \((PS)^*\)-condition if for each sequence \(\{x_n\}\subset X\) such that \(\varphi(x_n)\leq c\), \(x_n\in X_{m(n)}\), \(\lim_{n\to\infty}\nabla\varphi_{m(n)}(x_n)=0\) there exists a convergent subsequence. \(\varphi\) is quasi-decreasing on \(X\) if \(\varphi(x)\to-\infty\) as \(|x|\to +\infty\). The main result: if \(\varphi\in C^1(X,\mathbb{R})\) is quasi-decreasing, satisfies the \((PS)^*\)-condition and has an essential critical value \(c\in \mathbb{R}\), then it has at least two different critical values. Some applications to existence theorems for nonlinear Hammerstein integral equations are given.