Multiple solutions for nonlinear elliptic equations at resonance with a nonsmooth potential Original Research Article

In this paper, we study a nonlinear elliptic problem at resonance driven by the p-Laplacian and with a nonsmooth potential (hemivariational inequality). Our approach is variational and it is based on the nonsmooth critical point theory for locally Lipschitz functions due to Chang. We prove a theorem guaranteeing the existence of one solution which is smooth and strictly positive. Then by strengthening the assumptions, we establish a multiplicity result providing the existence of at least two distinct solutions. Our hypotheses permit resonance and asymmetric behavior at +∞ and −∞. As a byproduct of our analysis we obtain an nonlinear and nonsmooth generalization of a result of Brézis–Nirenberg about H01 versus C01 minimizers of a smooth functional.