Critical point theorems and applications to differential equations (Q2577869)

This paper contains a generalization of the Palais-Smale and Cerami conditions. The new compactness condition is first used to obtain a deformation lemma in real Banach spaces. The main abstract result of this paper is a minimax theorem which generalizes the Rabinowitz saddle point theorem and the Benci-Rabinowitz linking theorem. In the last part of the paper the author establishes an existence result for a class of nonlinear Hamiltonian systems.