Dual variational methods for a nonlinear Helmholtz system (Q1635645)

The authors consider existence and non-existence of nontrivial solutions \((u,v) \in W^{2,p} (\mathbb{R}^N) \times W^{2,p} (\mathbb{R}^N)\) of the coupled nonlinear equations \[ \begin{aligned} -\Delta u - \mu u, &= a(x)\left( |u|^{\frac{p}{2}} + b(x) |v|^{\frac{p}{2}} \right) |u|^{\frac{p}{2}-2}u\\ -\Delta v - \nu v &= a(x)\left( |v|^{\frac{p}{2}} + b(x) |u|^{\frac{p}{2}} \right) |v|^{\frac{p}{2}-2}v ,\end{aligned}\tag{1} \] on \(\mathbb{R}^N\), \(N\geq 2\), where \(\frac{2(N+1)}{N-1} < p < 2^\ast\) (the critical Sobolev exponent), \(a,b \in L^\infty (\mathbb{R}^N)\) are nonnegative \(\mathbb{Z}^N\)-periodic coefficients, assumed to satisfy the bounds \(0 \leq b(x) \leq p-1\) and \(a(x)\geq a_0 \geq 0\) almost everywhere, and, most importantly, \(\mu,\nu>0\), i.e., we are in the much less well understood case of Helmholtz equations than the Schrödinger case \(\mu,\nu<0\). As the title suggests, the approach taken involves introducing and studying a dual formulation of the problem (1), which is variational. This follows ideas of \textit{G. Evequoz} and \textit{T. Weth} [Adv. Math. 280, 690--728 (2015; Zbl 1317.35030)] and \textit{G. Evéquoz} [Analysis, München 37, No. 2, 55--68 (2017; Zbl 1376.35004)] for (single) Helmholtz equations. Here, the dual problem is shown to have a nontrivial mountain pass solution under the assumptions stated above, corresponding to a nontrivial strong solution of (1) (Theorem 1). Such solutions are fully nontrivial (i.e., neither \(u\) nor \(v\) is identically zero) under either of the following sets of assumptions (Theorem 2): {\parindent=0.7cm\begin{itemize}\item[(a)] \(2 < p < 4\) and \(\text{ess inf} \, b(x) > 0\), or \item[(b)] \(p \geq 4\), \(\text{ess inf} \, b(x) > \frac{\text{ess sup}\,a(x)}{\text{ess inf}\,a(x)} \cdot 2^{\frac{p-2}{2}}-1\) and \(\mu/\nu\) is sufficiently close to \(1\). \end{itemize}} However, if \(p \geq 4\) and \(0 \leq \text{ess sup} \, b(x) < 2^{\frac{p-2}{2}}\), then every such solution is semitrivial, i.e., either \(u\) or \(v\) is identically zero (Theorem 3).