Semi-classical states for the nonlinear Choquard equations: existence, multiplicity and concentration at a potential well (Q2280514)

Summary: We study existence and multiplicity of semi-classical states for the nonlinear Choquard equation \[-\varepsilon^2\Delta v+V(x) v = \frac{1}{\varepsilon^\alpha}\,(I_\alpha*F(v))f(v) \quad \text{in } \mathbb{R}^N,\] where \(N\geq 3, \alpha\in (0,N), I_\alpha(x)={A_\alpha/ |x|^{N-\alpha}}\) is the Riesz potential, \(F\in C^1(\mathbb{R},\mathbb{R}), F'(s) = f(s)\) and \(\varepsilon0\) is a small parameter. We develop a new variational approach and we show the existence of a family of solutions concentrating, as \(\varepsilon\to 0\), to a local minima of \(V(x)\) under general conditions on \(F(s)\). Our result is new also for \(f(s)=|s|^{p-2}s\) and applicable for \(p\in (\frac{N+\alpha}{N}, \frac{N+\alpha}{N-2})\). Especially, we can give the existence result for locally sublinear case \(p\in (\frac{N+\alpha}{N},2)\), which gives a positive answer to an open problem arisen in recent works of Moroz and Van Schaftingen. We also study the multiplicity of positive single-peak solutions and we show the existence of at least \(\mathrm{cupl}(K)+1\) solutions concentrating around~\(K\) as \(\varepsilon\to 0\), where \(K\subset \Omega\) is the set of minima of \(V(x)\) in a bounded potential well \(\Omega \), that is, \(m_0 \equiv \inf_{x\in \Omega} V(x) \inf_{x\in \partial\Omega}V(x)\) and \(K=\{x\in\Omega; \, V(x)=m_0\}\).