The paper investigates the nonlinear function spaces introduced by Giaquinta, Modica and Souček. It is shown that a function from ${Cart}^p(\Omega ,{𝐑}^m)$ is approximated by ${𝒞}^1$ functions strongly in ${𝒜}^q(\Omega ,{𝐑}^m)$ whenever $q<p$. An example is shown of a function which is in ${cart}^p(\Omega ,{𝐑}^2)$ but not in ${cart}^p(\Omega ,{𝐑}^2)$.

We study the boundary value problem $-{\mathrm{d}iv\left(\right(\left|\nabla u\right|}^{p_1\left(x\right)-2}+{\left|\nabla u\right|}^{p_2\left(x\right)-2}\left)\nabla u\right)=f(x,u)$ in $\Omega$, $u=0$ on $\partial \Omega$, where $\Omega$ is a smooth bounded domain in ${ℝ}^N$. Our attention is focused on two cases when $f(x,u)=\pm (-\lambda |u{|}^{m\left(x\right)-2}u+\left|u{|}^{q\left(x\right)-2}u\right)$, where $m\left(x\right)=max\{p_1\left(x\right),p_2\left(x\right)\}$ for any $x\in \overline{\Omega }$ or $m\left(x\right)<q\left(x\right)<\frac{N·m\left(x\right)}{(N-m(x\left)\right)}$ for any $x\in \overline{\Omega }$. In the former case we show the existence of infinitely many weak solutions for any $\lambda >0$. In the latter we prove that if $\lambda$ is large enough then there exists a nontrivial weak solution. Our approach relies on the variable exponent theory of generalized Lebesgue-Sobolev spaces, combined with a ${\mathbb{Z}}_2$-symmetric version for even...