Abstract:
In this paper, we investigate the ground states for the fractional Choquard equations with doubly critical exponents and magnetic fields. We prove that the equation has a ground state solution by using the Nehari method and the Pokhozhaev identity.
$a:=2^{\sharp}_{\alpha,s}=(N+\alpha)/N$ and $b:=2^*_{\alpha,s}=(N+\alpha)/(N-2s)$ are fractional lower and upper critical exponents in the sense of the Hardy–Littlewood–Sobolev inequality (see § 2 for more information on the Hardy–Littlewood–Sobolev inequality), $V\in(\mathbb{R}^N,\mathbb{R})$ is a continuous function, $u\in(\mathbb{R}^N,\mathbb{C})$ is a complex valued function, $A\in(\mathbb{R}^N,\mathbb{R}^N)$ is a magnetic potential, $(-\Delta)^s_A$ is a fractional magnetic Laplacian operator with $s\in(0,1)$. Up to normalization constants, $(-\Delta)^s_A$ can be defined on smooth complex valued functions $u \in C_{\mathrm{c}}^{\infty}(\mathbb{R}^N,\mathbb{C})$ by
where $B_{\varepsilon}(x)$ denotes a ball in $\mathbb{R}^N$ of radius $\varepsilon > 0$ with centre at $x\in\mathbb{R}^N$, and $B_{\varepsilon}^{c}(x)=\mathbb{R}^N\setminus B_{\varepsilon}(x)$. This nonlocal operator has been introduced by d’Avenia and Squassina [1] as a fractional extension of the magnetic pseudo-relativistic operator, or by Ichinose and Tamura [2] as a Weyl pseudo-differential operator defined by mid-point prescription. The motivation for its introduction belongs to the general theoretical framework of Lévy process.
Lots of scholars have studied the Choquard equation and its nontrivial solutions. For $A=0$ and $s\to1$, Ma and Zhao [3] studied the generalized Choquard equation, in particular, they proved that its positive solution is radially symmetric and monotone decreasing. Moroz and Van Schaftingen [4] proved the existence, regularity, positivity, radial symmetry and the decaying property of ground state solutions for Choquard equation. D’Avenia, Siciliano, and Squassina [5] showed some properties of the solution of the fractional Choquard equation.
In recent years, many people have paid attention to the Choquard equation with double critical exponents and studied it. Seok [6] studied the existence of nontrivial solutions for Choquard equation with double critical exponents. Su, Wang, Chen, and Liu [7] studied the multiplicity and concentration of positive solutions for the fractional Choquard equation
where $F(u)=|u|^{2^{\sharp}_{\alpha}}/2^{\sharp}_{\alpha} + |u|^{2^*_{\alpha}}/2^*_{\alpha}$. In [8], Lei and Zhang considered the existence of ground state solutions for the Choquard equations
they used the Pokhozhaev-type identity to overcome the loss of compactness caused by the doubly critical nonlinearities.
Inspired by the above works, we will discuss the existence of ground states for the fractional Choquard equation with doubly critical exponents and magnetic fields. In order to determine the existence of the ground states of equation (1.1), we use the Nehari method, which transforms the problem of seeking the ground states of the equation into the problem of finding the critical point of its corresponding energy functional. In addition, we apply the Pokhozhaev identity to overcome the loss of compactness caused by the doubly critical nonlinearities. Obviously, the study of the problem will become more complex because the magnetic fractional Laplacian operator and the doubly critical nonlinearities exist at the same time. As far as we know, it seems that there is almost no work on this subject.
Suppose that the potential $V\in(\mathbb{R}^N,\mathbb{R})$ is a continuous function. In order to accurately express our main results, we introduce the following assumptions:
(A) $A=(A_1,\dots,A_N)\in(\mathbb{R}^N,\mathbb{R}^N)$ is continuous;
(V) there exists $V_0>0$ such that $V(x)\geqslant V_0$.
In what follows, we state our main results.
Theorem 1.1. Assume that (A) and (V) hold. Then equation (1.1) has a ground state solution.
§ 2. Preliminaries
Let $L^2(\mathbb{R}^N,\mathbb{C})$ be the Lebesgue space with real inner product
and denote by $|\,{\cdot}\,|_{q}$ the norm of $L^q(\mathbb{R}^N)$, where $\operatorname{Re} z$ is the real part of a complex number $z$. Consider the fractional magnetic critical Sobolev space
Hence any critical point $u$ of $\mathcal{I}_{s,A}$ satisfies $\mathcal{P}(u)= 0$.
Proposition 2.1 (the Hardy–Littlewood–Sobolev inequality [9]). Let $s,t>1$ and $0<\alpha<N$ with $1/s+(N-\alpha)/N+1/t=2$. If $f\in L^s(\mathbb{R}^N)$ and $g\in L^t(\mathbb{R}^N)$, then there exists a sharp constant $C(N,\alpha,s,t)$ independent of $f$ and $g$ such that
Therefore, $(N+\alpha)/N$ is known as the fractional lower critical exponent, and $(N+ \alpha)/(N-2s)$ is the fractional upper critical exponent in the sense of the Hardy–Littlewood–Sobolev inequality.
Lemma 2.1. For each $u\in\mathcal{H}\setminus\{0\}$ and $k>0$, the functional $\mathcal{I}_{s,A}(ku)$ has a unique critical point which corresponds to its maximum.
Proof. For each $u\in\mathcal{H}\setminus\{0\}$, we have
for sufficiently small $k>0$. Thus, $\mathcal{I}_{s,A}(ku)$ has a critical point $k_0>0$ such that $I'_{s,A}(k_0u)=0$, and $I'_{s,A}(ku)>0$ as $0<k<k_0$.
In what follows, we will prove the uniqueness of the critical point of $\mathcal{I}_{s,A}(ku)$. We set
for $t>0$. It can be shown that $f(0)=0$, $f(t)>0$ for sufficiently small $t>0$ and $f(t)\to-\infty$ as $t\to+\infty$. Therefore, we assume by contradiction that $f$ has at least three positive critical points $t_1$, $t_2$, $t_3$, and
which means that, for every $u\in\mathcal{N}_1$, there exists $\delta_{\ast}>0$ such that $k_u\geqslant\delta_{\ast}$.
Assume on the contrary that, for every $n\in\mathbb{N}$, there exists $\{u_n\}\subset W\subset\mathcal{N}_1$ such that $k_{u_n}\to+\infty$ as $n\to\infty$. By compactness of $W$, we can suppose that there exists $u\in W$ such that $u_n\to u$ as $n\to\infty$.
Define the mapping $\mu\colon \mathcal{N}_1\to\mathcal{M}$ by $\mu(w):=k_ww$, where $k_w$ is as in Lemma 2.1.
Lemma 2.6 (see [11]). The mapping $\mu$ is a homeomorphism between $\mathcal{N}_1$ and $\mathcal{M}$, and the inverse mapping of $\mu$ is given by $\mu^{-1}(u)=u/\|u\|$.
Consider the functional $\varUpsilon\in(\mathcal{N}_1,\mathbb{R})$ defined by
(i) For every $n\in\mathbb{N}$, if $\{w_n\}$ is a Palais–Smale sequence for $\varUpsilon$, then $\{\mu(w_n)\}$ is a Palais–Smale sequence for $\mathcal{I}_{s,A}$. Conversely, if $\{u_n\}\subset\mathcal{M}$ is a bounded Palais–Smale sequence for $\mathcal{I}_{s,A}$, then $\{\mu^{-1}(u_n)\}$ is a Palais–Smale sequence for $\varUpsilon$.
(ii) $w\in\mathcal{N}_1$ is a critical point of $\varUpsilon$ if and only if $\mu(w)$ is a nontrivial critical point of $\mathcal{I}_{s,A}$. In addition, the corresponding values of $\varUpsilon$ and $\mathcal{I}_{s,A}$ are equal, and $\inf_{\mathcal{N}_1}\varUpsilon=\inf_{\mathcal{M}}\mathcal{I}_{s,A}$.
(iii) The minimum of $\mathcal{I}_{s,A}$ on $\mathcal{M}$ is the ground state solution of equation (1.1).
For $n\in\mathbb{N}$, set $u_n=\mu(w_n)\in\mathcal{M}$. By the Ekeland variational principle, we can assume that $\varUpsilon'(w_n)\to0$ in the dual $\mathcal{H}^*$ of $\mathcal{H}$. By (i), (ii) of Lemma 2.7 and (3.1), we have
Hence $\mathcal{I}_{s,A}(u_0)\leqslant c$. Since $\mathcal{I}_{s,A}(u_0)\geqslant c$, we find that $\mathcal{I}_{s,A}(u_0)=c$. This means that $u_0$ is a ground state solution of equation (1.1). Theorem 1.1 is proved.
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Citation:
Zhenyu Guo, Lujuan Zhao, “Ground states for fractional Choquard equations with doubly critical exponents and magnetic fields”, Izv. Math., 88:1 (2024), 43–53