Ground state homoclinic orbits for a class of asymptotically periodic second-order Hamiltonian systems (Q2029753)

A class of second-order Hamiltonian systems of the form \[ \ddot{u}(t)-L(t)u(t) +\nabla W(t,u(t))=0 \] is considered. Here \(L:\mathbb R\to \mathbb R ^{N^2}\) and \(W\in C^1(\mathbb R \times \mathbb R^N, \mathbb R )\) are asymptotically periodic in \(t\) at infinity. Under a series of conditions, called by the authors ``reformative perturbation conditions'' and some weak super-quadratic conditions on the nonlinearity, the existence of a ground state homoclinic orbit is proved. Recall that a ground state homoclinic orbit is a nonzero solution to the above problem such that \(u(t)\to 0\) when \(|t|\to \infty\). The result extends and unifies some earlier results in [\textit{C. O. Alves} et al., Appl. Math. Lett. 16, No. 5, 639--642 (2003; Zbl 1041.37032); \textit{Z. Chen} and \textit{W. Zou}, Ann. Mat. Pura Appl. (4) 194, No. 1, 183--220 (2015; Zbl 1319.35236); \textit{Z. Liu} et al., Nonlinear Anal., Real World Appl. 36, 116--138 (2017; Zbl 1365.37052); \textit{M.-H. Yang} and \textit{Z.-Q. Han} [Nonlinear Anal., Theory Methods Appl., Ser. A, Theory Methods 74, No. 7, 2635--2646 (2011; Zbl 1218.37082)]. A linear part can be taken as \(L(t)=(l^\infty-\frac{1}{1+t^2})\mathrm{Id}\) and the nonlinear one either \( W(t,x)=|x|^2\ln (1+|x|^2)+\frac{1}{1+t^2}|x|^2\) or \(W(t,x)=e^{2|x|^3} -e^{|x|^3}+\frac{1}{1+t^2}|x|^3\). These do not satisfy some of the earlier conditions. The method of the proof is based on the concentration-compactness principle by \textit{P.-L. Lions} [Ann. Inst. Henri Poincaré, Anal. Non Linéaire 1, 109--145 (1984; Zbl 0541.49009); Ann. Inst. Henri Poincaré, Anal. Non Linéaire 1, 223--283 (1984; Zbl 0704.49004)] and on the Mountain Pass theorem.