Solutions of periodic boundary value problems for second-order nonlinear differential equations via variational methods

By introducing a variational framework for a class of second order nonlinear differential equations with non-separated periodic boundary value conditions, some results on the existence of non-trivial, positive and negative solutions of the problems are obtained. Some results by Atici-Guseinov, Graef-Kong, etc. obtained by topological degree methods are extended. The resonant case of the problems where the nonlinearities are unbounded and satisfy Ahmad-Lazer-Paul type conditions is also considered.