Infinitely many solutions of a semilinear problem for the Heisenberg Laplacian on the Heisenberg group (Q1772067)

Let \({\mathbb H}^n = {\mathbb R}^n \times {\mathbb R}^n \times {\mathbb R}\) be the \((2n+1)\)-dimensional Heisenberg group with group law \[ \eta \circ \eta^{\prime}=(x, y, t) \circ (x^{\prime}, y^{\prime}, t^{\prime}) =(x+x^{\prime}, y+y^{\prime}, t+t^{\prime}+2(x^{\prime}\cdot y-x\cdot y^{\prime})) \] where \(\cdot\) denotes the usual inner product in \({\mathbb R}^n\). The vector fields \(X_1, \ldots , X_n, Y_1, \ldots, Y_n, T\) given by \[ \begin{aligned} X_j &=\frac{\partial}{\partial x_j} +2y_j\frac{\partial}{\partial t},\\ Y_j&= \frac{\partial}{\partial y_j}-2x_j\frac{\partial}{\partial t},\\ T&= \frac{\partial}{\partial t}, \end{aligned} \] form a basis for the tangent space at \(\eta =(x, y, t)\). The Heisenberg Laplacian is by definition \( \triangle_{\mathbb H}=\sum_{j=1}^{n} (X_{j}^2+Y_j^2) \) and we use the notation \( \nabla_{\mathbb H}u=(X_1 u, \ldots , X_n u, Y_1 u, \ldots, Y_n u). \) The Sobolev type space \(S^2_1({\mathbb H}^n)\) is defined as the completion of \(C_0^{\infty}({\mathbb H}^n)\) in the norm \( ||u||_{S_1^2}^2= \int_{{\mathbb H}^{n}} (|u|^2+|\nabla_{\mathbb H} u|^2) dx. \) Let \({\mathbb H}^n_{\mathbb Z}\) be the subgroup of \({\mathbb H}^n\) consisting of points in \({\mathbb H}^n\) with integer coordinates, and consider the equation \[ -\triangle_{\mathbb H} u(\eta) + u(\eta) = f(\eta, u(\eta)), \quad u \in S_1^2 ({\mathbb H}^n), \tag{1} \] where \(f \in C^2 ({\mathbb H}^n \times {\mathbb R} , {\mathbb R})\). The functional \(\phi\) on \(S_1^2 ({\mathbb H}^n)\) corresponding to equation (1) is given by \[ \phi (u) = \tfrac{1}{2}||u||_{S_1^2}^2- \int_{{\mathbb H}^n} F(\eta, u(\eta))\,d\eta, \tag{2} \] where \(F(\eta , s)= \int^s_0 f(\eta, \sigma)\,d\sigma\). Two critical points \(u_1\) and \(u_2\) of \(\phi\) are considered to be equivalent if there exists \(\eta \in {\mathbb H}^n_{\mathbb Z}\) such that \(u_1 (z)=u_2 (\eta^{-1}\circ z)\). Two critical points which are not equivalent are said to be geometrically distinct. In this paper a main result is the following Theorem. Suppose that \(f \in C^2({\mathbb H}^n \times {\mathbb R}, {\mathbb R})\) satisfies some (subcritical) growth conditions and is left invariant under the action of \({\mathbb H}^n_{\mathbb Z}\), i.e. for any \(u \in {\mathbb R}, \;z \in {\mathbb H}^n\) and \(\eta \in {\mathbb H}^{n}_{{\mathbb Z}}, \;f(\eta \circ z, u) =f(z,u)\). Then the functional \(\phi\) as defined in (2) has infinitely many geometrically distinct critical points and the corresponding equation (1) has infinitely many geometrically distinct solutions. A similar result for the classical Laplacian was proved by \textit{V. Coti-Zelati} and \textit{P. H. Rabinowitz} [Commun. Pure Appl. Math. 45, 1217--1269 (1992; Zbl 0785.35029)].