Existence and limiting profile of energy ground states for a quasi-linear Schr\"odinger equations: Mass super-critical case

TL;DR

This paper investigates the existence and properties of energy ground states for a quasi-linear Schrödinger equation in the mass super-critical regime, extending previous results to higher dimensions and larger nonlinear exponents.

Contribution

It establishes the existence of minimizers for the energy functional in higher dimensions and for larger nonlinear exponents, including explicit conditions on the mass parameter.

Findings

Existence of minimizers for all mass in dimensions 1 to 4.

Existence of minimizers in higher dimensions only for small mass.

Asymptotic behavior of minimizers as mass approaches zero or critical value.

Abstract

In any dimension $N \geq 1$, for given mass $a>0$, we look to critical points of the energy functional $$ I(u) = \frac{1}{2}\int_{\mathbb{R}^N}|\nabla u|^2 dx + \int_{\mathbb{R}^N}u^2|\nabla u|^2 dx - \frac{1}{p}\int_{\mathbb{R}^N}|u|^p dx$$ constrained to the set $$\mathcal{S}_a=\{ u \in X | \int_{\mathbb{R}^N}| u|^2 dx = a\},$$ where $$ X:=\left\{u \in H^1(\mathbb{R}^N)\Big| \int_{\mathbb{R}^N} u^2|\nabla u|^2 dx <\infty\right\}. $$ We focus on the mass super-critical case $$4+\frac{4}{N}<p<2\cdot 2^*, \quad \mbox{where } 2^*:=\frac{2N}{N-2} \quad \mbox{for } N\geq 3, \quad \mbox{while } 2^*:=+\infty \quad \mbox{for } N=1,2.$$ We explicit a set $\mathcal{P}_a \subset \mathcal{S}_a$ which contains all the constrained critical points and study the existence of a minimum to the problem \begin{equation*} M_{a}:=\inf_{\mathcal{P}_{a}}I(u). \end{equation*} A minimizer of $M_a$ corresponds to an energy ground state. We prove that $M_a$ is achieved for all mass $a>0$ when $1\leq N\leq 4$. For $N\geq 5$, we find an explicit number $a_0$ such that the existence of minimizer is true if and only if $a\in (0, a_0]$. In the mass super-critical case, the existence of a minimizer to the problem $M_a$, or more generally the existence of a constrained critical point of $I$ on $\mathcal{S}_a$, had hitherto only been obtained by assuming that $p \leq 2^*$. In particular, the restriction $N \leq 3$ was necessary. We also study the asymptotic behavior of the minimizers to $M_a$ as the mass $a \downarrow 0$, as well as when $a \uparrow a^*$, where $a^*=+\infty$ for $1\leq N\leq 4$, while $a^*=a_0$ for $N\geq 5$.