Abstract The aim of this paper is investigating the existence of one or more weak solutions of the coupled quasilinear elliptic system of gradient type \textup{(P)} { - div ( A ( x , u ) | ∇ u | p 1 - 2 ∇ u ) + 1 p 1 A u ( x , u ) | ∇ u | p 1 = G u ( x , u , v ) in Ω , - div ( B ( x , v ) | ∇ v | p 2 - 2 ∇ v ) + 1 p 2 B v ( x , v ) | ∇ v | p 2 = G v ( x , u , v ) in Ω , u = v = 0 on ∂ Ω , \left\{\begin{aligned} \displaystyle-\operatorname{div}(A(x,u)|\nabla u|^{p_{1% }-2}\nabla u)+\frac{1}{p_{1}}A_{u}(x,u)|\nabla u|^{p_{1}}&\displaystyle=G_{u}(% x,u,v)&&\displaystyle\phantom{}\text{in~{}${\Omega}$,}\\ \displaystyle-\operatorname{div}(B(x,v)|\nabla v|^{p_{2}-2}\nabla v)+\frac{1}{% p_{2}}B_{v}(x,v)|\nabla v|^{p_{2}}&\displaystyle=G_{v}(x,u,v)&&\displaystyle% \phantom{}\text{in~{}${\Omega}$,}\\ \displaystyle u=v&\displaystyle=0&&\displaystyle\phantom{}\text{on ${\partial% \Omega}$,}\end{aligned}\right. where Ω ⊂ ℝ N {\Omega\subset\mathbb{R}^{N}} is an open bounded domain, p 1 {p_{1}} , p 2 > 1 {p_{2}>1} and A ( x , u ) {A(x,u)} , B ( x , v ) {B(x,v)} are 𝒞 1 {\mathcal{C}^{1}} -Carathéodory functions on Ω × ℝ {\Omega\times\mathbb{R}} with partial derivatives A u ( x , u ) {A_{u}(x,u)} , respectively B v ( x , v ) {B_{v}(x,v)} , while G u ( x , u , v ) {G_{u}(x,u,v)} , G v ( x , u , v ) {G_{v}(x,u,v)} are given Carathéodory maps defined on Ω × ℝ × ℝ {\Omega\times\mathbb{R}\times\mathbb{R}} which are partial derivatives of a function G ( x , u , v ) {G(x,u,v)} . We prove that, even if the coefficients make the variational approach more difficult, under suitable hypotheses functional 𝒥 {{\mathcal{J}}} , related to problem (P), admits at least one critical point in the “right” Banach space X. Moreover, if 𝒥 {{\mathcal{J}}} is even, then (P) has infinitely many weak bounded solutions. The proof, which exploits the interaction between two different norms, is based on a weak version of the Cerami–Palais–Smale condition, a “good” decomposition of the Banach space X and suitable generalizations of the Ambrosetti–Rabinowitz Mountain Pass Theorems.
Read full abstract