Infinitely many homoclinic solutions for damped vibration problems with subquadratic potentials (Q380155)

The paper deals with damped vibration problems \[ \ddot{q}+A\dot{q}-L(t)q+W_{q}(t,q)=0, \tag{\(\ast\)} \] where \(A\) is an antisymmetric constant matrix, \(L\in C(\mathbb{R},\mathbb{R}^{n^2})\) is a symmetric and positive definite matrix for all \(t\in\mathbb{R}\) and \(W\in C^1(\mathbb{R}\times\mathbb{R}^n)\). The authors prove two novel results providing sufficient conditions for the existence of infinitely many nontrivial homoclinic solutions for \((\ast)\). Both results consider the non-Hamiltonian case (\(A \neq 0\)) assuming subquadratic conditions for \(W\) and coercivity properties for \(L\). An appropriate upper bound for the norm of \(A\) is also required. Using the notion of genus for closed and symmetric subsets in a Banach space and some of its properties, homoclinic solutions are found as critical points of suitable functionals which, under the given assumptions, satisfy the so-called Palis-Smale condition. A subquadratic hypothesis has been already considered in the non-Hamiltonian scenario, see [\textit{Z. Zhang} and \textit{R. Yuan}, Nonlinear Anal., Theory Methods Appl., Ser. A, Theory Methods 71, No. 11, 5790--5798 (2009; Zbl 1203.34068)] and in the Hamiltonian case [\textit{Z. Zhang} and \textit{R. Yuan}, Nonlinear Anal., Theory Methods Appl., Ser. A, Theory Methods 71, No. 9, 4125--4130 (2009; Zbl 1173.34330)] and [\textit{J. Sun} et al., J. Math. Anal. Appl. 373, No. 1, 20--29 (2011; Zbl 1230.37079)]. As the authors claim, their results improve significantly the previous ones.