On differential systems with strongly indefinite variational structure

Abstract

We obtain multiplicity results for a class of first-order superquadratic Hamiltonian systems and a class of indefinite superquadratic elliptic systems which lead to the study of strongly indefinite functionals. There is no assumption to the effect that the nonlinear terms have to satisfy the Ambrosetti-Rabinowitz superquadratic condition. To establish the existence of solutions, a new version of the symmetric mountain pass theorem for strongly indefinite functionals is presented in this paper. This theorem is subsequently applied to deal with cases where all the Palais-Smale sequences of the energy functional may be unbounded.