The Fučík spectrum of Schrödinger operator and the existence of four solutions of Schrödinger equations with jumping nonlinearities (Q2404277)

The paper deals with the nonlinear Schrödinger equation with jumping nonlinearities \[ \begin{cases} -\Delta u+V(x)u=f(x,u),\,\,\,x\in \mathbb{R}^N,\\ u(x)\to 0,\,\,\,\text{as}\,\,\,|x|\to+\infty, \end{cases}\leqno(1) \] where \(V\) is a real-valued linear Kato-Rellich potential with \(V=V_1+V_2\), \(V_1\in L^p(\mathbb{R}^N)\), \(V_2\in L^{\infty}(\mathbb{R}^N)\), and \(p=2\) if \(N\leq 3\), \(p>2\) if \(N=4\) and \(p>\frac{N}{2}\) if \(N\geq 5\), and \(f(x,u)\) is a Carathéodory function on \(\mathbb{R}^N\times \mathbb{R}\) such that \[ \displaystyle\frac{f(x,t)}{t}\to\begin{cases} a,\,\,\text{as}\,\,t\to -\infty,\\ b,\,\,\text{as}\,\,t\to +\infty,\end{cases} \] and \((a,b)\not\in \Sigma (-\Delta+V)\). Here \(\Sigma(-\Delta+V)\) is the Fučík spectrum associated to Problem \((1)\), defined as the set of all \((a,b)\in \mathbb{R}^2\) such that \[ \begin{cases} -\Delta u+V(x)u=a u^-+b u^+,\,\,\,x\in\mathbb{R}^N,\\ u(x)\to 0,\,\,\text{as}\,\,\,|x|\to+\infty\end{cases} \] has a nontrivial solution \(u\in D(-\Delta+V)=H^1(\mathbb{R}^N)\), with \(u^+=\max\{u,0\}\) and \(u^-=\min\{u,0\}\). Under some additional assumptions on the potential \(V\) and the function \(f\), the authors prove the existence of four nontrivial solutions for Problem (1). They study the properties of the Fučík spectrum, compute the minimal and maximal curves of Fučík spectrum in a set \(Q_l\), and also compute the critical groups of homogeneous functional at zero if \((a,b)\) is free of Fučík spectrum and \((a,b)\in Q_l\). A new version of Morse theory of weak smooth functionals on \(H^1(\mathbb{R}^N\)), a weak maximum principle for \(\mathbb{R}^N\), and critical groups of critical points of mountain pass type are also presented.