The virial theorem and ground state energy estimates of nonlinear Schrödinger equations in \(\mathbb{R}^2\) with square root and saturable nonlinearities in nonlinear optics (Q1674635)

This paper considers the nonlinear Schrödinger equation \[ \Delta u+\Gamma f\left( u^{2}\right) u=\lambda^{2}u\text{ in } \mathbb{R}^{2}, \] where $\Gamma>0$ and $\lambda\in\mathbb{R}$, in the particular case of the square-root nonlinearity $f\left( s\right) =1-\frac{1}{\sqrt{1+s}}$, $s>0$, and the saturable nonlinearity $f\left( s\right) =1-\frac{1}{1+s}$, $s>0$. The aim of the paper is to study the virial relation, which is a ratio $\alpha=\alpha\left( u\right) $, between the kinetic and potential energies, and to estimate the energy of the ground state. These results are useful in assessing the quality of numerical computations of the eigenvalues. Estimates for the ratio $\alpha$ and the eigenvalue $\lambda$ in terms of the coupling constant $\Gamma$ are presented. In particular, it is shown that \[ -1<\alpha<0, \] which is the same interval as in the virial theorem for the linear Schrödinger equation with Coulomb potentials. Moreover, these eigenvalue estimates are used to show that the lower bound for the energy of the ground state asymptotically has the form \[ -\frac{\Gamma}{2}+\sigma\frac{T}{2}\ln\Gamma+C,\text{ as }\Gamma \rightarrow\infty, \] where $\sigma\in(0,1)$ in the case of saturable nonlinearities, $\sigma=1$ in the case of square-root nonlinearities, $T=\inf_{u\in H^{1},\left\Vert u\right\Vert _{L^{2}}=1}\left( -\Gamma\alpha\right) $, and $C$ is a constant independent of $\Gamma$.