Remarks on the topological invariants of a class of solitary waves. (Q5958900)

The authors consider the system of equations \[ -\Delta u^j - \varepsilon \Delta_6 u^j + \frac{\delta V}{\delta \xi^j} (u)=0, \quad j=1, \ldots, n \] in \({\mathbb R}^3\), where \(u=(u^1, \ldots, u^n)\), \[ \Delta_6 u=\text{ div} (| \nabla u| ^4 \nabla u^j) \] and where \(V:\Omega \subseteq {\mathbb R}^n \rightarrow {\mathbb R}\) is a smooth function satisfying certain assumptions. This is the static version of an equation which has been proposed in [\textit{V. Benci, D. Fortunato} and \textit{L. Pisani}, Rev. Math. Phys. 3, 315--344 (1998; Zbl 0921.35177)] with the goal to study solitary waves. In that paper the authors proved the existence of a non-trivial solution. In the article under review the existence of a different non-trivial solution is proved. This solution is obtained as minimum of a suitable energy functional in a space of functions satisfying a topological restriction.