Custom sandwich pairs

For many equations arising in practice, the solutions are critical points of functionals. In previous papers we have shown that there are pairs of subsets, called sandwich pairs, that can produce critical points even though they do not separate the functional. All that is required is that the functional be bounded from above on one of the sets and bounded from below on the other, with no relationship needed between the bounds. This provides a distinct advantage in applications. The present paper discusses the situation in which one cannot find sandwich pairs for which the functional is bounded below on one set and bounded above on the other. We develop a method which can deal with such situations and apply it to problems in partial differential equations.