Standing wave solutions of the nonlinear Schrödinger equation in \(\mathbb R^N\) (Q2368608)

The author investigates the nonlinear Schrödinger equation \[ i\hbar\frac{\partial \psi}{\partial t}=-\frac{\hbar^2}{2m}\Delta_x\psi+V(x)\psi-\bar f(x,\psi), \tag{1} \] where \(m\) and \(\hbar\) are positive constants, \(\psi:\mathbb R^+\times\mathbb R^N\to\mathbb C\), \(V\in C(\mathbb R^N,\mathbb R)\), and \(\bar f \in C(\mathbb R^N\times\mathbb C,\mathbb C)\). It is supposed that the potential \(V(x)\) is bounded from below and (2) \(\bar f(x, s\xi) = f(x, s)\xi\), for \(s\in \mathbb R\), \(\xi\in \mathbb C\), with \(|\xi| = 1\), and some function \(f\in C(\mathbb R^N\times\mathbb R,\mathbb R)\). He studies the existence of standing waves of (1), more precisely, of solutions of the form (3) \(\psi(t,x) = e^{-iEt/\hbar}v(x)\), where \(E\) is some real constant and \(v : \mathbb R^N\to\mathbb R\). Substituting (3) into (1), one obtains the real elliptic equation for \(v\) \[ -\hbar^2\Delta v + (V(x)- E) v = f(x,v) \tag{4} \] (for simplicity \(m = 12\) is taken). \textit{P. S. Rabinowitz} [Z. Angew. Math. Phys. 43, 270--291 (1992; Zbl 0763.35087)] has developed a variational method permitting him to show that (4) has a nontrivial solution for small values of \(\hbar\) provided that \[ \inf_{x\in\mathbb R^N} V(x)< \liminf_{| x|\to\infty} V(x),\tag{5} \] \[ E<\inf_{x\in\mathbb R^N} V(x) \] . In the present article the author gives a global condition on the potential \(V\) which includes (5), under which the Schrödinger equation (1) has a nontrivial standing wave solution for any general nonlinearity of mountain pass type.