A minimax inequality and its applications to ordinary differential equations (Q697442)

The aim of this paper is twofold. First, the author establishes several abstract results related to the minimax inequality which is involved in the three critical points theorem of Ricceri. Equivalent formulations are shown, and characterization is argued for a special class of functionals. In the second part of the paper the author applies these results in the study of the nonlinear eigenvalue differential equation \(u''+\lambda f(u)=0\), subject to the Dirichlet conditions \(u(0)=u(1)=0\), where \(f:\mathbb{R}\rightarrow \mathbb{R}\) is a continuous function.