Multiple solutions for the non-abelian Chern-Simons-Higgs vortex equations (Q2316451)

The authors study the existence of multiple solutions for the non-abelian Chern-Simons-Higgs (\(N\times N\))-system over a doubly periodic domain \(\Omega\) with coupling matrix \(K\) given by the Cartan matrix of \(\mathrm{SU}(N+1)\): \[ \Delta u_i=\lambda \left(\sum_{j=1}^N\sum_{k=1}^NK_{kj}K_{ji}e^{u_j}e^{u_k}-\sum_{j=1}^NK_{ji}e^{u_j}\right)+4\pi\sum_{j=1}^{n_i}\delta_{p_{ij}}, \ i=1,\dots, N. \] Here \(\lambda>0\) is the coupling parameter, \(\delta_p\) is the Dirac measure with pole at \(p\) and \(n_i\in\mathbb{N}\) for \(i=1,\ldots,N\). While for \(N=1,2\), many results tackled the periodic solvability of such system and provided the existence of different classes of solutions, for \(N\ge 3\), only in [\textit{X. Han} and \textit{Y. Yang}, Trans. Am. Math. Soc. 368, No. 5, 3565--3590 (2016; Zbl 1344.35115)] the authors obtained the existence of one doubly period solution via a minimization procedure. The main goal of this paper is to show that the given system admits a second doubly periodic solution (other than the one in [loc. cit.]) for \(3\le N\le 5\). This is obtained by a min-max procedure of ``Mountain-pass'' type. The main difficulty the authors faced while in applying a variational approach to the ``action'' functional corresponding to the system is to prove it satisfies a compactness property expressed by the Palais-Smale condition. The validity of this condition is still unknown for \(N\ge 6\).