Least energy solutions for nonlinear Schrödinger equation involving the fractional Laplacian and critical growth

Variational methods applied to PDEs (35A15) Critical exponents in context of PDEs (35B33) Nonlinear boundary value problems for linear elliptic equations (35J65) NLS equations (nonlinear Schrödinger equations) (35Q55) Fractional partial differential equations (35R11)

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In this paper, the authors study the existence and behaviour of least-energy solutions for the one-parameter family of nonlinear fractional Schrödinger problems \[ (1.1)\; \begin{cases} (-\Delta)^s u +(\lambda V(x) -\mu)u = |u|^{2^\sharp_s-2}u\quad\text{ in }\mathbb{R}^N,\\ u\geq 0, \quad u\in H^s(\mathbb{R}^N), \end{cases} \] where \(0 < s < 1\), \(N > 5+2s\), and \(2^\sharp_s=\frac{2N}{N-2s}\) denotes the critical fractional Sobolev exponent. For the classical Laplacian (\(s=1\)), this kind of problems where first investigated by \textit{T. Bartsch and Z.-Q. Wang} [Comm. PDE 20, No. 9--10, 1725--1741 (1995; Zbl 0837.35043)] for a subcritical nonlinearity, and it has attracted a lot of interest since then. For the fractional Laplacian (\(0 < s < 1\)) the subcritical problem has been studied by the second author [Comm. Pure Appl. Anal. 13, No. 1, 237--248 (2014; Zbl 1291.35366)]. In the present paper, the following assumptions are made on the potential \(V\) and the parameter \(\mu\): \textbf{(V1)} \(V\geq 0\) is continuous and its zero set has nonempty interior \(\Omega=\text{int }V^{-1}(0)\) and smooth boundary \(\partial\Omega\); \textbf{(V2)} \(\liminf\limits_{|x|\to\infty}V(x)>0\), and \textbf{(V3)} \(0<\mu<\mu_1\), where \(\mu_1\) is the first eigenvalue of the \(s\)-Laplacian on \(\Omega\) with Dirichlet boundary condition. In a first result (Theorem 1.2), the authors show that (1.1) has a least-energy solution when \(\lambda>0\) is large. Moreover, it is shown that the equation \[ (1.10)\; \begin{cases} (-\Delta)^s u -\mu u = |u|^{2^\sharp_s-2}u\quad\text{ in }\Omega,\\ u\geq 0\quad\text{ in }\Omega, \quad u=0\quad\text{ on } \mathbb{R}^N\backslash\Omega. \end{cases} \] plays the role of a limit problem, in the following sense: If \((\lambda_n)_n\) is a sequence of positive numbers such that \(\lambda_n\to\infty\), and \((u_n)_n\) is a sequence of least-energy solutions of (1.1) with \(\lambda=\lambda_n\). Then, up to a subsequence, \((u_n)_n\) converges strongly in \(H^s(\mathbb{R}^N)\) to a least-energy solution \(u_0\) of (1.10). In other words, as \(n\to\infty\), the sequence \((u_n)_n\) localizes at the bottom \(\Omega=\text{int}V^{-1}(0)\) of the potential well \(\lambda V(x)-\mu\). As the authors point out, in the case where \(\Omega\) consists of several connected components, the limit \(u_0\) will in general be positive on more than one component, due to the nonlocality of the fractional Laplacian. In a second result (Theorem 1.3), the authors prove that the same localization phenomenon on \(\Omega\) occurs for every sequence of solutions \((u_n)_n\) of (1.1) with \(\lambda=\lambda_n\to\infty\), provided the energy of the sequence is bounded from above. The proofs rely on the \(s\)-harmonic extension of the problems (1.1) and (1.10) to \(\mathbb{R}^{N+1}_+\), in the spirit of \textit{L. Caffarelli and L. Silvestre} [Comm. PDE 32, No. 8, 1245--1260 (2007; Zbl 1143.26002)]. Variational arguments are applied to the energy functionals of the extended problems. The condition on the space dimension \(N>5+2s\) is used in estimating the least-energy level of the Caffarelli-Silvestre extension of (1.10) and guarantees the existence of a least-energy solution to this limit problem.

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