Cylindrically symmetric ground state solutions for curl-curl equations with critical exponent (Q680172)

The paper deals with the curl-curl equation \[ \nabla\times\nabla\times U+V(x)U=|U|^{p-2}U +|U|^4 U \quad\text{in }\mathbb{R}^3 \] where \(V\in L^\infty(\mathbb{R}^3)\) and the exponent \(p\in(2,6)\) is subcritical. It is assumed that \(V\) is cylindrically symmetric, i.e., \(V=V(r,x_3)\) with \(r=\sqrt{x^2_1+x^2_2}\). If \(V\) is \(1\)-periodic in \(x_3\) and \(0\not\in\sigma(-\Delta+\frac{1}{r^2}+V)\) then the existence of a solution of the form \[ U(x)=\frac{u(r,x_3)}{r} \begin{pmatrix} -x_2\\x_1\\0 \end{pmatrix} \] is obtained. This extends a result from [Zbl 1372.35292] to the critical case. The proof is based on variational methods applied to the functional associated to the equation for \(u\). It is shown that the infimum on the Nehari-Pankov manifold lies below the levels where the Palais-Smale condition fails, so that it is achieved.