Homoclinic orbits and subharmonics for nonlinear second order difference equations (Q2371167)

The authors derive the existence of a nontrivial homoclinic orbit as limit of subharmonic solutions for scalar nonlinear second order self-adjoint difference equations of the form \[ \Delta[p(t)\Delta u(t-1)]+q(t)u(t)=f(t,u(t)), \] where \(p,q\) and \(f\) are \(T\)-periodic functions (in time). Moreover, the precise assumptions read as follows: (1) \(p(t)>0\), (2) \(q(t)<0\), (3) \(\lim_{x\to 0}\frac{f(t,x)}{x}=0\), and (4) \(xf(t,x)\leq\beta\int_0^xf(t,s)\,ds<0\) for some constant \(\beta>2\). The basic proof technique is to embed the above problem into a variational framework based on Ekeland's principle and the application of an appropriate Mountain Pass lemma.