Nonlinear Choquard equations: doubly critical case (Q1680030)

Let \(N\geq 5\), \(\alpha\in (0,N-4)\), \(p=\frac{N+\alpha}{N}\), and \(q=\frac{N+\alpha}{N-2}\). In this paper, an existence result of nontrivial radial \(H^1\)-solutions to the Choquard equation \[ \displaystyle{-\Delta u+u=I_\alpha*F(u)F'(u)},\text{ in }\mathbb{R}^N, \] \[ \displaystyle{\lim_{|x|\rightarrow +\infty}u(x)=0} \] is established. Here, \[ I_\alpha(x):=\Gamma\bigg(\frac{N-\alpha}{2}\bigg)\bigg(\Gamma\bigg(\frac{\alpha}{2}\bigg)\pi^{\frac{N}{2}}2^\alpha|x|^{N-\alpha}\bigg)^{-1} \] is the Riesz potential and \(F(u):=\frac{1}{p}|u|^p+\frac{1}{q}|u|^q\). The exponents \(p,q\) are both critical for this equation. The proof relies on variational methods. Using some Hardy-Littlewood-Sobolev type-inequalities, the author proves that the energy functional \(I\) associated to the problem, with \(I\) being defined on the space of all radial functions of \(H^1(\mathbb{R}^N)\), satisfies the Palais-Smale condition at each energy level less than a positive constant \(c_0\) (explicitly computed). Next, the author shows that \(I\) has the mountain pass geometry and, using the inequality \(\alpha<N-4\), that the energy at the mountain pass level is strictly less than \(c_0\). Then, the conclusion follows by applying the classical mountain pass theorem and the principle of symmetric criticality.