Skip to main content
Log in

Nonsmooth critical point theory and applications to the spectral graph theory

  • Articles
  • Published:
Science China Mathematics Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Existing critical point theories including metric and topological critical point theories are difficult to be applied directly to some concrete problems in particular polyhedral settings, because the notions of critical sets could be either very vague or too large. To overcome these difficulties, we develop the critical point theory for nonsmooth but Lipschitzian functions defined on convex polyhedrons. This yields natural extensions of classical results in the critical point theory, such as the Liusternik-Schnirelmann multiplicity theorem. More importantly, eigenvectors for some eigenvalue problems involving graph 1-Laplacian coincide with critical points of the corresponding functions on polytopes, which indicates that the critical point theory proposed in the present paper can be applied to study the nonlinear spectral graph theory.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Aubin J P, Ekeland I. Applied Nonlinear Analysis. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1984

    MATH  Google Scholar 

  2. Brondsted A. An Introduction to Convex Polytopes. Graduate Texts in Mathematics, vol. 90. New York-Berlin: Springer-Verlag, 1983

    Book  Google Scholar 

  3. Campa I, Degiovanni M. Subdifferential calculus and nonsmooth critical point theory. SIAM J Optim, 2000, 10: 1020–1048

    Article  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  4. Chang K C. Variational methods for nondifferentiable functionals and their applications to partial differential equations. J Math Anal Appl, 1981, 80: 102–129

    Article  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  5. Chang K C. Critical Point Theory and Its Applications (in Chinese). Shanghai: Shanghai Science and Technology Press, 1985

    Google Scholar 

  6. Chang K C. Spectrum of the 1-Laplacian and Cheeger’s constant on graphs. J Graph Theory, 2016, 81: 167–207

    Article  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  7. Chang K C, Shao S, Zhang D. The 1-Laplacian Cheeger cut: Theory and algorithms. J Comput Math, 2015, 33: 443–467

    Article  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  8. Chang K C, Shao S, Zhang D. Nodal domains of eigenvectors for 1-Laplacian on graphs. Adv Math, 2017, 308: 529–574

    Article  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  9. Chang K C, Shao S H, Zhang D. Cheeger’s cut, maxcut and the spectral theory of 1-Laplacian on graphs. Sci China Math, 2017, 60: 1963–1980

    Article  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  10. Clarke F H. Optimization and Nonsmooth Analysis. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1983

    MATH  Google Scholar 

  11. Corvellec J-N, Degiovanni M, Marzocchi M. Deformation properties for continuous functionals and critical point theory. Topol Methods Nonlinear Anal, 1993, 1: 151–171

    Article  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  12. Degiovanni M, Marzocchi M. A critical point theory for nonsmooth functionals. Ann Mat Pura Appl (4), 1994, 167: 73–100

    Article  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  13. Degiovanni M, Marzocchi M. On the second eigenvalue of nonlinear eigenvalue problems. Electron J Differential Equations, 2018, 2018: 1–22

    MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  14. Degiovanni M, Schuricht F. Buckling of nonlinearly elastic rods in the presence of obstacles treated by nonsmooth critical point theory. Math Ann, 1998, 311: 675–728

    Article  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  15. Deimling K. Nonlinear Functional Analysis. Berlin-Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag, 1985

    Book  Google Scholar 

  16. Gruber P M. Convex and Discrete Geometry. Fundamental Principles of Mathematical Sciences, vol. 336. Berlin: Springer, 2007

    MATH  Google Scholar 

  17. Ioffe A, Schwartzman E. Metric critical point theory. I: Morse regularity and homotopic stability of a minimum. J Math Pures Appl (9), 1996, 75: 125–153

    MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  18. Katriel G. Mountain pass theorems and global homeomorphism theorems. Ann Inst H Poincaré Anal Non Linéaire, 1994, 11: 189–209

    Article  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  19. Morse M. Functional Topology and Abstract Variational Theory. Memorial des Sciences Mathematiques, No. 92. Paris: Gauthier-Villars, 1939

    MATH  Google Scholar 

  20. Zhang D. Topological multiplicity of the maximum eigenvalue of graph 1-Laplacian. Discrete Math, 2018, 341: 25–32

    Article  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 11822102 and 11421101). The second author was supported by Beijing Academy of Artificial Intelligence (BAAI). The third author was supported by the project funded by China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (Grant No. BX201700009).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Kung-Ching Chang.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Chang, KC., Shao, S., Zhang, D. et al. Nonsmooth critical point theory and applications to the spectral graph theory. Sci. China Math. 64, 1–32 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11425-019-1625-8

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11425-019-1625-8

Keywords

MSC(2010)

Navigation