Stability of standing waves for nonlinear Schrödinger equations with inhomogeneous nonlinearities (Q2580953)

The paper proves stability of a ground-state solution in the form of \(u=\exp(i\omega t)\phi_{\omega}({\mathbf r})\) to the multidimensional nonlinear Schrödinger equation, \[ iu_t+\nabla^2u+V({\mathbf r})| u| ^{p-1}u=0 \] in the \(n\)-dimensional space, assuming that the coefficient in front of the nonlinear term is positive (attractive), and decays at \(r\to\infty\) as \(r^{-b}\), with some \(b>0\). It is known that, in the uniform space (\(V=\) const), ground states in the form of spherically symmetric stationary solutions to this equation (alias multi-dimensional solitons) are stable provided that the nonlinearity is weak enough, namely, \(p-1<4/n\) (the \textit{Talanov's criterion}); in the opposite case, the solitons are unstable because of the possibility of \textit{collapse} in the nonlinear Schrödinger equation (formation of a singlularity in a finite time). The present paper provides for a rigorous proof of the stability of the ground state in the above equation with the localized nonlinearity under the conditions that \(p-1<2(2-b)/n\) and \(0<b<2\). The stability is first proved for the particular case of \(V(r)=r^{-b}\), and then for the nonlinear potential of a general form, featuring the same asymptotic form at \(r\to\infty\).