On a system of nonlinear elliptic equations arising in theoretical physics (Q1969488)

The author investigates the following problem: \[ \Delta u_j=\sum_{k=1}^na_{jk}(e^{u_k}-r_k)+ 4\pi\sum_{k=1}^{N_j}\delta_{p_{jk}}\quad \text{in} M,\quad j=1,\dots,n, \tag{1} \] where \(A=(a_{jk})\) is a constant positive definite real symmetric \(n\times n\)-matrix, \(r_j>0,\) \(M\) is either 1) a closed Riemannian \(2\)-surface or 2) \(\mathbb R^2\), \(\lim e^{u_j(x)}=r_j\), \(|x|\to\infty\); \(\Delta\) is the Laplace-Beltrami operator on \(M\) (the Laplace operator on \(\mathbb R^2\)), \(\delta_p\) is the Dirac measure concentrated at \(p\in M\), \(p_{jk},k=1,\dots,N_j\) are points in \(M\). The system (1) originates from several vortex models in physics. The author proves the following facts: The system (1) has a solution in the Sobolev vector space \([H^2(M)]^n\) for the cases 1) if and only if \(\forall j,\;r_j\operatorname {Vol}M> 4\pi A^{-1}N_j\), 2) for all data. This solution is unique. In the case 2) the sharp decay estimates at infinity \(\forall\varepsilon\in(0,1)\), \(\exists C>0\), \[ \sum_{j=1}^n(u_j(x)-\ln r_j)^2\leq C(\varepsilon)e^{-(1-\varepsilon)\sqrt{\lambda_0}|x|}, \] \[ \sum_{j=1}^n|\nabla u_j(x)|^2\leq C(\varepsilon)e^{-(1-\varepsilon)\sqrt{\lambda_0r_0}|x|},\quad \lambda_0=2\min_j\{\lambda_j\},\lambda_j \] are the eigenvalues of \(A\), \(r_0=\min_j\{r_j\}\) and also quantized integrals \[ \int_{\mathbb R^2}\sum_{k=1}^n a_{jk}(e^{u_k}-r_k)=-4\pi N_j \] hold. For the case 2) possibilities of vanishing of some \(r_j\) are considered, too. The proofs use variational considerations. There are some physical interpretations of these results.