Existence of positive multi-bump solutions for a Schrödinger-Poisson system in \(\mathbb{R}^{3}\) (Q325215)

The authors are interested in the existence of multiple positive solutions of the nonlocal nonlinear Schrödinger equation \[ -\Delta u + V(x)u + \left(\int_{\mathbb{R}^3} \frac{u^2(y)}{|x-y|}\,\text dy\right)u=f(u)\tag{1} \] in \(\mathbb{R}^3\), \(u\in H^1(\mathbb{R}^3)\), equivalent to the existence problem for the system \[ \begin{aligned} -\Delta u + V(x)u + \phi u &= f(u)\\ -\Delta \phi &=4\pi u^2 \end{aligned}\tag{2} \] in \(\mathbb{R}^3\), under the assumption that the potential \(V\) have multiple disjoint wells. More precisely, the potential \(V\) is assumed to be of the form \[ V(x) = \lambda a(x) + 1 \] for a parameter \(\lambda > 0\) and a nonnegative function \(a: \mathbb{R}^3 \to \mathbb{R}\) for which the interior of the set \(a^{-1}(\{0\})\) is assumed to be the disjoint union of nonempty bounded open sets \(\Omega_1,\ldots,\Omega_k\) each having positive distance to each other. In the case of local Schrödinger equations of the form \[ -\Delta u + (\lambda a(x)+Z(x))u = u^q\tag{3} \] in \(\mathbb{R}^N\), \(u \in H^1 (\mathbb{R}^N)\), under the same assumptions on \(a\) and appropriate assumptions on \(Z\) and \(q\), it has been shown that there exist at least \(2^k-1\) positive solutions of (3) for \(\lambda>0\) large enough; moreover, as \(\lambda \to \infty\), for any nonempty index set \(\Upsilon \subset \{1,\ldots,k\}\) we can find a sequence of solutions converging strongly in \(H^1 (\mathbb{R}^N)\) to a function \(u\) supported in the set \(\Omega_\Upsilon := \bigcup_{j\in\Upsilon} \Omega_j\), such that \(u|_{\Omega_j}\) is a least energy solution of \(-\Delta u + Z(x)u = u^q\) in \(H^1_0 (\Omega_j)\), \(j \in \Upsilon\), [\textit{Y. Ding} and \textit{K. Tanaka}, Manuscr. Math. 112, No. 1, 109--135 (2003; Zbl 1038.35114)] and [\textit{C. O. Alves}, Adv. Nonlinear Stud. 6, No. 4, 491--509 (2006; Zbl 1184.35146)]. Here the authors consider the corresponding problem for the equation (1), about which nothing seemed to be known in terms of the existence of such multi-bump solutions (but see also the recent paper [\textit{X. Zhang} and \textit{S. Ma}, Z. Angew. Math. Phys. 66, No. 4, 1615--1631 (2015; Zbl 1321.35045)], where a similar problem for the (local) system (2) is considered). Assume now, in addition to the above assumptions on \(a\), that the function \(f \in C^1\) satisfy \(f=0\) on \((-\infty,0]\) and {\parindent=0.7cm\begin{itemize}\item[{\((f_1)\)}] \(\lim_{s\to 0} f(s)/s = 0\), \item[{\((f_2)\)}] \(\lim_{s\to +\infty} f(x)/s^5 = 0\), \item[{\((f_3)\)}] there exists \(\theta > 4\) such that \(0<\theta F(s) \leq sf(s)\) for all \(s>0\) for the antiderivative \(F(s)=\int_0^s f(t)\), and \item[{\((f_4)\)}] \(f(s)/s^3\) is increasing in \(s>0\). \end{itemize}} Under these assumptions, the authors show the existence of variational solutions analogous to the ones described above for (3) (Theorem~1.2): namely, for any \(\lambda>0\) large enough, (1) has a positive solution \(u_\lambda\). Moreover, for any nonempty \(\Upsilon \subset \{1,\ldots,k\}\) and \(\lambda_n \to \infty\), up to a subsequence \((u_{\lambda_n})\) converges strongly in \(H^1(\mathbb{R}^3)\) to a function \(u\) which is zero outside \(\Omega_\Upsilon\) and \(u|_{\Omega_\Upsilon}\) is a least energy solution of the nonlocal equation \[ -\Delta u + u + \left(\int_{\mathbb{R}^3} \frac{u^2(y)}{|x-y|}\,\text{d}y\right)u=f(u) \] \(u \in H^1_0 (\Omega_\Upsilon)\) with \(u>0\) everywhere in \(\Omega_\Upsilon\).