On ground state solutions for superlinear Hamiltonian elliptic systems (Q2375784)

The authors study the existence of ground state solutions for the following Hamiltonian elliptic system \[ -\Delta u+V(x)u=g(x,v),\quad \text{ in }\mathbb{R}^N, \] \[ -\Delta v+V(x)v=f(x,u),\quad \text{ in }\mathbb{R}^N, \] where \(N\geq 3\), \(V\in C(\mathbb{R}^N)\), and \(f,g\in C(\mathbb{R}^N\times\;\mathbb{R})\). The nonlinearities \(f(x,\cdot),g(x,\cdot)\) are superlinear at \(0\) and at \(\infty\), uniformly in \(x\in \mathbb{R}^N\), and satisfy the following subcritical growth conditions: \[ \sup_{(x,t)\in \mathbb{R}^N\times \mathbb{R}}\frac{|f(x,t)|}{1+|t|^p}<\infty,\quad \sup_{(x,t)\in \mathbb{R}^N\times \mathbb{R}}\frac{|g(x,t)|}{1+|t|^q}<\infty, \] where \(p,q\in ]1,\infty[\) are such that \(\frac{1}{p+1}+\frac{1}{q+1}>\frac{N-2}{N}\). Moreover, for every \(x\in \mathbb{R}^N\), the functions \(t\rightarrow f(x,t)/|t|\) and \(t\rightarrow g(x,t)/|t|\) are non-decreasing in \(\mathbb{R}\setminus \{0\}\). Under the above assumptions, the first main result of this paper guarantees the existence of a nontrivial ground state solution for the above system in the case of \(V\equiv 1\) and \(f,g\) independent of \(x\in \mathbb{R}^N\). As a corollary, the authors derive the existence of a nontrivial ground state solution in the case in which \(f(\cdot,t)\), \(g(\cdot,t)\) and \(V\) are \(1\)-periodic in each \(x_i\), \(i=1,\dots,n\), and \(\inf_{\mathbb{R}^N}V>0\). The second main result concerns the case in which \(V\equiv 1\) and \(f,g\) depend on \(x\in \mathbb{R}^N\). This result states the existence of a nontrivial ground state solution if, in addiction to the above conditions, the nonlinearities \(f,g\) satisfy: \[ \lim_{|x|\rightarrow \infty}f(x,t)=\overline{f}(t), \quad \lim_{|x|\rightarrow \infty}g(x,t)=\overline{g}(t), \] uniformly in \(t\in \mathbb{R}\), where \(\overline{f},\overline{g}\in C(\mathbb{R})\). Moreover, for some \(\delta>0\), \[ |f(x,t)-\overline{f}(t)|\leq \epsilon(R)|t|, \quad |g(x,t)-\overline{g}(t)|\leq \epsilon(R)|t|, \] whenever \(|x|\geq R\), \(|t|\leq \delta\), where \(\epsilon(R)\rightarrow 0\) as \(R\rightarrow +\infty\). \[ f(x,t)\geq \overline{f}(t), \quad g(x,t)\geq \overline{g}(t), \] and \[ \mathrm{meas}\{y\in \mathbb{R}^N: f(y,t)>\overline{f}(t)\}>0, \quad \mathrm{meas}\{y\in \mathbb{R}^N: g(y,t)>\overline{g}(t)\}>0 \] for all \((x,t)\in \mathbb{R}^N\times \mathbb{R}\). The proofs are based on a generalized linking theorem which ensures the existence of a Palais-Smale sequence for the energy functional associated to the system. Since the assumptions on \(f,g\) do not imply a Ambrosetti-Rabinowitz type growth condition, the boundedness of Palais-Smale sequences is not guaranteed. To overcome this difficulty, the authors use the monotonic method introduced in [\textit{L. Jeanjean}, Proc. R. Soc. Edinb., Sect. A, Math. 129, No. 4, 787--809 (1999; Zbl 0935.35044)]. After obtaining a bounded Palais-Smale sequence, the authors prove the existence of nontrivial solutions for the system by standard arguments. Finally, by minimizing the energy functional on the set of all nontrivial solutions, the authors obtain a nontrivial ground state solution.