Least energy positive solutions of critical Schrödinger systems with mixed competition and cooperation terms: the higher dimensional case (Q2135164)

The present paper deals with the existence of critical points of the functional \(J:[H^1_0(\Omega)]^d\rightarrow\mathbb{R}\) given by \[ J(\mathbf{u}) = \frac{1}{2}\sum_{i=1}^d \int_\Omega(|\nabla u_i|^2+\lambda_iu_i^2)- \frac{1}{2p} \sum_{i,j=1}^d \int_\Omega \beta_{ij} |u_i|^p |u_j|^p \] where \(\Omega\) is a bounded smooth domain of \(\mathbb{R}^N\), \(N\geq 5\), in the critical regime \(p=N/(N-2)\). For \(i=1,\cdots, d\), \(-\lambda_1(\Omega)<\lambda_i<0\), with \(\lambda_1(\Omega)\) being the first eigenvalue of \((-\Delta, H^1_0(\Omega))\), and \(\beta_{ii}>0\). Moreover, \(\beta_{ij}=\beta_{ji}\), for \(i,j=1,\cdots, d\), \(i\not=j\). It is assumed that there exists a \(m-\)decomposition \(\mathbf{a}\in\mathbb{N}^{m+1}\) of \(d\), for some \(1\leq m\leq d\), such that two groups \(\mathcal{K}_1\) and \(\mathcal{K}_2\) are defined subject to the interaction of the elements, namely cooperation and competition. The authors firstly prove that the infimum of \(J\) is attained by a nonnegative \(\mathbf{u}\) in a Nehari-type set, via energy estimates and the Palais--Smale conditions for some subsystems, such that has at least \(m\) nontrivial components. The authors secondly study the asymptotic behaviors of nonnegative solutions when \(\beta_{ij}\rightarrow 0^-\) or \(\beta_{ij}\rightarrow -\infty\) for \((i,j)\) belonging to the group \(\mathcal{K}_2\), via contradiction arguments. The particular \(m=d\geq 2\) and \(m=d=2\) cases are studied for \(N\geq 4\). Under the contradiction argument, the authors prove the existence of a positive minimizer, \(J(\mathbf{u})\leq J(\mathbf{v})\) for any positive solution \(\mathbf{v}\), for four cases (1) the purely cooperative case (\(\beta_{ij}>0\), for every \(i\not=j\)); (2) the purely competitive case (\(\beta_{ij}\leq 0\), for every \(i\not=j\)); (3) the interaction between elements of the same group contains the cooperative case, while the interaction between elements of different groups is weakly competitive; (4) the interaction between elements of the same group contains the pure cooperative case, while the interaction between elements of different groups is strongly competitive. In the last section, the authors prove that the nonnegative solution \(\mathbf{u}\) is positive providing that \(m=2\), \(d=3\) and \(\beta_{12}>\hat\beta\) for some \(\hat\beta>0\) depending on the data.