Monotonicity Arguments for Variational–Hemivariational Inequalities in Hilbert Spaces

Abstract

We consider a variational–hemivariational inequality in a real Hilbert space, which depends on two parameters. We prove that the inequality is governed by a maximal monotone operator, then we deduce various existence, uniqueness and equivalence results. The proofs are based on the theory of maximal monotone operators, fixed point arguments and the properties of the subdifferential, both in the sense of Clarke and in the sense of convex analysis. These results lay the background in the study of various classes of inequalities. We use them to prove existence, uniqueness and continuous dependence results for the solution of elliptic and history-dependent variational–hemivariational inequalities. We also present some iterative methods in solving these inequalities, together with various convergence results.