Sign-changing solutions to an elliptic system with couplings on Kirchhoff term and nonlinear part. (Q2674466)

The authors consider the nonlinear elliptic system written as: \(-(a_{1}+b_{1}\int_{\mathbb{R}^{3}}\left\vert\nabla u\right\vert ^{2}+d\int_{\mathbb{R}^{3}}\left\vert\nabla v\right\vert ^{2}\Delta u+u=\left\vert u\right\vert ^{p-2}u+\frac{\alpha\lambda}{p}\left\vert v\right\vert ^{\beta}\left\vert u\right\vert ^{\alpha -2}u\), \(-(a_{2}+b_{2}\int_{\mathbb{R}^{3}}\left\vert\nabla v\right\vert ^{2}+d\int_{\mathbb{R}^{3}}\left\vert\nabla u\right\vert ^{2}\Delta v+v=\left\vert v\right\vert ^{p-2}v+\frac{\beta\lambda}{p}\left\vert u\right\vert ^{\alpha}\left\vert v\right\vert ^{p-2}v\), where \(a_{1},a_{2}>0\), \(b_{1},b_{2},d,\lambda\geq 0\), with \(b_{1}+b_{2}+d\neq 0\), and \(\alpha,\beta >1\), with \(\alpha +\beta =p\in (2,6)\). The authors look for sign-changing solutions to this system. The first main result proves that, under the above-indicated hypotheses on the coefficients, for every integer \(m>0\) and for any \(\lambda >0\), the above system possesses a non-radially symmetric and sign-changing solution \((u,v)\in H^{1}(\mathbb{R}^{3})\times H^{1}(\mathbb{R}^{3})\setminus\{(0,0)\}\), which changes sign exactly \(m\)-times. The second main result proves that under the above-indicated hypotheses on the coefficients \(a_{1},a_{2},b_{1},b_{2},d\), \(\alpha,\beta\), and now assuming that \(\lambda >\max\{(\frac{a_{1}+a_{2}}{\min(a_{1},a_{2})})^{p/2};(\frac{b_{1}+b_{2}+2d}{\min(b_{1},b_{2})})^{p/4}\}-2\), for every integer \(m>0\), the above system possesses a non-radially symmetric and sign-changing solution \((u,v)\in H^{1}(\mathbb{R}^{3})\times H^{1}(\mathbb{R}^{3})\) with \(u\neq 0\) and \(v\neq 0\). Moreover, both \(u\) and \(v\) change sign exactly \(m\)-times. For the proof, the authors introduce the energy functional associated to this problem: \(\mathcal{F}(u,v)=\frac{1}{2}I(u,v)+\frac{1}{2}J(u,v)+\frac{1}{4}K(u,v)-\frac{1}{p}E(u,v)\), with \(I(u,v)=\int(a_{1}\left\vert\nabla u\right\vert ^{2}+a_{2}\left\vert\nabla v\right\vert ^{2})dx\), \(J(u,v)=\int(\left\vert u\right\vert ^{2}+\left\vert v\right\vert ^{2})dx\), \(K(u,v)=b_{1}(\int\left\vert\nabla u\right\vert ^{2}dx)^{2}+b_{2}(\int\left\vert\nabla v\right\vert ^{2}dx)^{2}+2d\int\left\vert\nabla u\right\vert ^{2}dx\int\left\vert\nabla v\right\vert ^{2}dx\), \(E(u,v)=\int(\left\vert u\right\vert ^{p}+\left\vert v\right\vert ^{p}+\lambda\left\vert u\right\vert ^{\alpha}\left\vert v\right\vert ^{\beta})dx\), and they prove that \(\mathcal{F}\) is not bounded from below. They define the set \(\mathcal{M}=\{(u,v)\in\widetilde{H}\setminus\{(0,0)\}:\mathcal{G}(u,v)=\frac{1}{2}I(u,v)+J(u,v)+\frac{1}{2}K(u,v)-\frac{p+6}{4p}E(u,v)=0\}\), where \(\widetilde{H}=H_{G_{m}}^{1}\times H_{G_{m}}^{1}\) with \(H_{G_{m}}^{1}=\{u\in H^{1}(\mathbb{R}^{3}):u(gx)=det(g)\) for all \(g\in G_{m}\}\), \(G_{m}\) being the finite subgroup of \(O(2)\) generated by the two elements \(\alpha\) and \(\beta\) in \(O(2)\), where \(\alpha\) is the rotation in the \((x_{1},x_{2})\)-plane by the angle \(2\pi /m\) and \(\beta\) is the reflection in the line \(x_{1}=0\) if \(m=2\), and in the line \(x_{2}=\tan(\pi /m)x_{1}\) for other \(m\). The authors observe that if \((u,v)\in H^{1}(\mathbb{R}^{3})\times H^{1}(\mathbb{R}^{3})\) is a solution to the system, then \(\mathcal{G}(u,v)=0\). They thus consider the minimization problem \(h=\inf\{\mathcal{F}(u,v):(u,v)\in\mathcal{M}\}\). They prove that \(\mathcal{M}\) is a \(C^{1}\)-manifold and if \((u_{0},v_{0})\in\mathcal{M}\) is a critical point of \(\mathcal{F}\mid_{\mathcal{M}}\), then it is also a critical point of \(\mathcal{F}\) on \(\widetilde{H}\). The proof of the existence result is obtained considering a minimizing sequence and proving that it has a nonzero weak limit \((u_{0},v_{0})\) in \(\widetilde{H}\), that \((u_{0},v_{0})\neq(0,0)\), that \(\mathcal{G}(u_{0},v_{0})=0\), and that \(\mathcal{F}(u_{0},v_{0})=h\). For the proof of the second main result, the authors compare the minimum \(h\) of \(\mathcal{F}\) on \(\mathcal{M}\), with the least energy of all semitrivial solutions to the system in \(H_{G_{m}}^{1}\).