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LEAST ACTION NODAL SOLUTIONS FOR A QUASILINEAR DEFOCUSING
SCHRÖDINGER EQUATION WITH SUPERCRITICAL NONLINEARITY

MINBO YANG∗ , CARLOS ALBERTO SANTOS, AND JIAZHENG ZHOU

Abstract. In this paper we consider the existence of least action nodal solutions for the quasilinear

US
defocusing Schrödinger equation in H 1 (RN ):
k
−∆u + u∆u2 + V (x)u = g(u) + λ|u|p−2 u,
2
where N ≥ 3, V (x) is a positive continuous potential, g(u) is of subcritical growth, p ≥ 2∗ = 2N /(N − 2)
and λ, k are two non-negative parameters. By considering a minimizing problem restricted on a partial
Nehari manifold, we prove the existence of least action nodal solution via deformation flow arguments
and L∞ -estimates.
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1. Introduction and main results
In this paper we are interested in the existence of a least action nodal solutions in H 1 (RN ) for the
modified quasilinear Schrödinger equation
k
(1.1) − ∆u + u∆u2 + V (x)u = g(u) + λ|u|p−2 u in RN ,
2
where V : RN → (0, ∞) is a continuous and positive potential function, g : R → R is a continuous and
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subcritical function, λ, k ≥ 0 are two parameters and p ≥ 2∗ = 2N /(N − 2) is the critical exponent in
the common sense. The existence of solutions for (1.1) is closely related to the study of the standing
waves ω(x, t) = u(x)e−(iEt)/~ for the superfluid film equation arising in the plasma physics (see [5]),
k
(1.2) i~∂t ω = −∆ω + W (x)ω − e h(|ω|2 )ω + ω∆ω 2 ,
2
where W (x) is a given potential and e h(u2 )u = g(u) + λ|u|p−2 u is a real function. So, ω(x, t) will be a
such solution of (1.2) if and only if u(x) solves equation (1.1) with V (x) = W (x) − E.
For the case k = 0 and λ = 0, equation (1.1) becomes a semilinear Schrödinger equation. The existence
of positive ground states or least action nodal solutions for the semilinear Schrödinger equation has been
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studied widely, we may refer the readers to [2, 4, 18, 20] and the references therein for the literature of
nodal solutions of the semilinear Schrödinger equation.
For k = −1, the modified quasilinear Schrödinger equation has received a lot of attention. The
appearance of the quasilinear part u∆u2 makes the problem much more complicated, it is quite difficult
to study the associated energy functional directly in the Sobolev space H 1 (RN ) and requires one to
develop new techniques to apply the variational methods. The existence of a positive ground state
solution of equation (1.1) has been proved in [12] and [19] by introducing parameter λ in front of the
nonlinear term. In [13], by changing of variables, the authors studied the quasilinear problem was
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transformed to a semilinear one and the existence of a positive solution was proved by the Mountain-Pass
lemma in an Orlicz working space. Different from the changing variable methods, in [16] the authors
introduced a new perturbation techniques to study a class of subcritical quasilinear problems including

2010 Mathematics Subject Classification. 35J20, 35J60, 35Q55.

Key words and phrases. Quasilinear Schrödinger equation; Least energy nodal solutions, supercritical growth.
∗ Corresponding author. Minbo Yang was partially supported by NSFC (11571317) and ZJNSF(LY15A010010);
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Carlos Alberto Santos was partially supported by CAPES/Brazil Proc. N o 2788/2015 − 02;
Jiazheng Zhou was partially supported by CNPq/Brazil Proc. N o 232373/2014 − 0.
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2 M. YANG, CARLOS. A. SANTOS, AND J. ZHOU

the Modified Schrödinger equation 1.1 and they also proved the existence of solutions for the critical
case in [17].

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The existence of sign-changing solution is an interesting topic i.e. looking for solutions u with
6 0, where u+ (x) = max{u(x), 0} ≥ 0, and u− (x) = min{u(x), 0} ≤ 0, x ∈ RN . In [14]
u+ , u− =
the authors proved the existence of sign-changing ground state solution for (1.1) with k = −1 and
g(s) = |s|p−2 s, s ∈ R with 3 ≤ p < 22∗ −1, that is, g having subcritical growth (22∗ plays the role of critical
exponent here), and V is a continuous function such that 0 < V0 = inf RN V (x) ≤ lim|x|→∞ V (x) = V∞
with V (x) ≤ V∞ − A/(1 + |x|m ), for |x| ≥ M , for some real constants A, M, m > 0. The perturbation
arguments in [17] was also successfully applied to study the existence of multiple nodal solutions for a

US
general class of sub-critical quasilinear Schrödinger equation in [15].
Also, we would also like to mention [6, 7, 9, 11, 14] and references therein for some recent progress
of the study of the quasilinear Schrödinger equation for k < 0. However, in [8, 10], the nonlinearity g
is permitted to behave in a critical way, under the more restrictive assumption that V is symmetric
radially positive and differentiable continuous function with V 0 (r) ≥ 0 for r ≥ 0. Their approach was
based on Mountain Pass Theorem on Nehari manifolds.
However, for the case k > 0, it seems that there are few existence results of solutions, and the existence
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of sign-changing solutions to equation (1.1) has not been considered yet, specially with supercritical
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nonlinearity. Thus the aim of the present paper is to study the existence of sign-changing solution for a
quasilinear defocusing Schrödinger equation with supercritical nonlinearity.
To state the main results, we may assume that the potential function V is continuous such that
V (x) ≥ V0 > 0 for all x ∈ RN , and:
(V1 ) V is radially symmetric, i.e., V (x) = V (|x|) and V ∈ L∞ (RN ), or
(V2 ) lim|x|→∞ V (x) = ∞.
The nonlinearity g is supposed to satisfy:
(G1 ) g ∈ C(R, R) is such that g(0) = 0 and odd;
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(G2 ) lim|t|→0 g(t) g(t) ∗

t = 0 and lim sup|t|→∞ |t|q−1 < ∞ for some q ∈ ´(2, 2 );
∗ u
(G3 ) 0 < θG(s) ≤ sg(s), s 6= 0 for some 2 < θ < 2 , where G(u) = 0 g(t)dt;
(G4 ) t 7−→ g(t)
tρ , t > 0 is non-decreasing for some ρ > 1.
Our principal result shows the existence of a nodal solution.
Theorem 1.1. Suppose that either (V1 ) or (V2 ) is satisfied and conditions (G1 ) − (G4 ) hold. Then there
exist k0 > 0 and λ∗ > 0 such that for each k ∈ (0, k0 ) and λ ∈ [0, λ∗ ) equation (1.1) has at least one
least energy nodal solution u ∈ H 1 (RN ) ∩ L∞ (RN ) with
h r
σ 1 1 8  i1/2
(1.3) max |u(x)| ≤ √ , where σ = 4 − − 2
+ /8 .
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x∈RN k ρ ρ ρ
The nodal solution found in Theorem 1.1 minimizes the energy functional among all possible sign-
changing solutions for (1.1), and so we call it the least action nodal solution. As a corollary, Theorem 1.1
shows the existence of least energy nodal solution for equation (1.1) with just subcritical growth (λ = 0)
which also improves or complements works [6–9, 11, 14] in some sense. However, our main objetive in
this paper is improve Theorem 1.1 in [1] that considered g(u) = |u|q−2 u with q ∈ (2, 2∗ ) and, by using
Mountain Pass Theorem, the authors showed existence of solutions for (1.1) without giving information
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about its signal.

This work contributes to the literature of modified quasilinear defocusing Schrödinger equation in two
folds: on one hand, it applies a new approach based on Miranda’s Theorem together with a quantitative
deformation lemma used in [18] for k = 0 to study equation (1.1) with supercritical nonlinearity; on the
other hand, it treat with the difficulties that arise in considering superlinear growth in whole space. To
our knowledge, this is the first work that shows the existence of sign-changing ground state for (1.1) in
the presence of supercritical nonlinearities with k > 0.
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The paper is organized as follows. In Sect.2, we introduce the variational framework for the quasilinear
defocusing Schrödinger equation. In Sect.3, by establishing some auxiliary lemmas, we are able to prove
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SUPERCRITICAL QUASILINEAR SCHRÖDINGER EQUATION 3

the existence of nodal solution for (1.1) with subcritical growth. Finally, we prove the main result by
penalizing the supercritical nonlinearity and obtaining a L∞ -estimate.

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Notation. We will use the following notations frequently:
• C, C0 , C1 , C2 , . . . denote positive (possibly different) constants.
• BR denotes the open ball centered at the origin with radius R > 0.
• C0∞ (RN ) denotes functions infinitely differentiable with compact support in RN .
• For 1 ≤ s ≤ ∞, Ls (RN ) denotes the usual Lebesgue space with the norms
ˆ 1/s
|u|s := |u|s , 1 ≤ s < ∞;

US
RN
|u|∞ := inf{C > 0 : |u(x)| ≤ C almost everywhere in RN }.
• H 1 (RN ) denotes the Sobolev spaces with usual norm

1/2
kuk1,2 := |∇u|22 + |u|22 .
• The weak convergence in H 1 (RN ) is denoted by *, and the strong convergence by →.
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2. The modified problem

I(u) =
1
ˆ

2 RN
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In this section, let us consider equation (1.1) with λ = 0. Formally, this equation has a variational
structure, that is, by considering

(1 − k|u|2 )|∇u|2 +
1
ˆ

2 RN
V (x)|u|2 −
ˆ
G(u),
RN
a function u ∈ H 1 (RN ) is said to be a weak solution of equation (1.1) if it satisfies
ˆ ˆ ˆ ˆ
2 2
(1 − k|u| )∇u∇ϕ − k |∇u| uϕ + V (x)uϕ = g(u)ϕ
DM
RN RN RN RN
1 N 0 1 N
for all ϕ ∈ H (R ), which means hI (u), ϕi = 0 for all ϕ ∈ H (R ).
First, we point out that, under (V1 ) and (V2 ), the subset
ˆ
E = {u ∈ H 1 (RN ) / V (x)u2 (x) < ∞}
RN
1 N
is a closed subspace of H (R ). Moreover,
ˆ ˆ
kuk2E = |∇u|2 + V (x)u2 (x)
RN RN
define an norm on E which is equivalent to usual norm on H 1 (RN ). However, the presence of the second
order nonhomogeneous term u∆u2 prevents us to work directly with the functional I, because it is not
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even well defined in general in H 1 (RN ).

In order to prove the main results, we first establish the existence of nontrivial solution for a modified
quasilinear Schrödinger equation. More precisely, we will show the existence of sign changing solutions
for the following quasilinear Schrödinger equations
(2.1) − div(l2 (u)∇u) + l(u)l0 (u)|∇u|2 + V (x)u = g(u), x ∈ RN
√ √
with l(t) = 1 − kt2 for |t| < σ/ k for k >√0, where V : RN → R is a continuous function and σ > 0
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was chosen in (1.3). Clearly, when l(t) = 1 − kt2 , we derive that (2.1) turns into (1.1). Then, by
using Morse type L∞ -estimate, we will prove that there exist k0 , λ√ ∗ > 0 such that for all k ∈ [0, k0 ) and
λ ∈ [0, λ∗ ) the solution found verifies the estimate maxRN |u| < σ/ k. After that, we conclude that the
solutions obtained are solutions of the original equation (1.1).
For the equation (2.1), we will consider l : R → R defined by
 p σ
2
 1 − kt , if 0 ≤ t < √ ,

√ r k
l(t) =
C

 σ3 k 1 σ
 √ + , if t ≥ √ ,
kt 1 − σ 2 ρ k
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4 M. YANG, CARLOS. A. SANTOS, AND J. ZHOU

and l(t) = p l(−t) for all t ≤ 0. So, it follows from the choice of σ = σ(ρ) > 0 for ρ > 1 in (1.3) that
l ∈ C 1 (R, ( 1/ρ, 1)) is an even function and it increases in (−∞, 0) and decreases in [0, +∞).

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Note that (2.1) is the Euler-Lagrange equation associated to the energy functional
1 1
ˆ ˆ ˆ
(2.2) Ik (u) = l2 (u)|∇u|2 + V (x)|u|2 − G(u)
2 RN 2 RN RN
√
for |u| < σ/ k.
In the sequel, we will prove √ the existence of nontrivial sign changing critical points u of (2.2)
satisfying sup N |u(x)| ≤ σ/ k. This means that it is a nontrivial sign changing solution of (2.1) with
√ x∈R
l(u) = 1 − ku2 , and so, a nontrivial sign changing solution of (1.1) can be got from the function l.

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In what follows, we set ˆ t
L(t) = l(s)ds, t ∈ R.
0
By a simple computation, we see that the inverse function L−1 (t) exists and it is an odd function.
Moreover, it is very important to note that L, L−1 ∈ C 2 (R). The lemma below shows some important
properties of the functions l and L−1 that will be used in the later part of the paper.
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(2.3)
1
4+ +
ρ
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Remark 2.1. From assumption (G4 ), if ρ2 > ρ1 > 1 and g(t)/tρ2 is non-decreasing, then g(t)/tρ1 is
non-decreasing as well. Thus, if g(t)/tρ is non-decreasing for some ρ > 1, we can assume that ρ is
sufficiently close to 1, satisfying
r
1
ρ2
8
ρ
8 √
+ > √ and 2 < 2 ρ < θ.
ρ
Lemma 2.2. The functions l and L−1 satisfy:
L−1 (t)
(1) limt→0 t = 1;
L−1 (t) √
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(2) lim = ρ;
q t→∞ t √
1
(3) ρ t ≤ l(t)t ≤ L(t) ≤ t and t ≤ L−1 (t) ≤ ρt, for all t ≥ 0;
σ2 t 0
(4) − 1−σ 2 ≤ l(t) l (t) ≤ 0, for all t ≥ 0;
−1 δ
[L (t)]
(5) l(L−1 (t))t , t > 0 is increasing for δ > 1 and non-decreasing for δ = 1,
L−1 (t) L−1 (t)
(6) l(L−1 (t))tρ , t > 0 is decreasing for ρ > 1 close to 1 and t , t > 0 is non-decreasing.
Proof. Conclusions (1)-(4) can be proved by adapting the strategies in [1]. Here, let us prove conclusions
(5) and (6).
(5). Since,
h (L−1 (t))δ i0 δ[L−1 (t)]δ−1 [L−1 (t)]0 l(L−1 (t))t − [L−1 (t)]δ [l0 (L−1 (t))(L−1 (t))0 t + l(L−1 (t))]
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= , t>0
l(L−1 (t))t [l(L−1 (t)t)]2
and
(2.4) [L−1 (t)]0 l(L−1 (t)) = 1
hold, the claim follows from (3) and (4) of Lemma 2.2 due to the fact that
δ[L−1 (t)]δ−1 [L−1 (t)]0 l(L−1 (t))t −[L−1 (t)]δ [l0 (L−1 (t))(L−1 (t))0 t + l(L−1 (t))]
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l0 (L−1 (t))
≥ δ[L−1 (t)]δ−1 t − l(L−1 (t)) [L
−1
(t)]δ t − [L−1 (t)]δ l(L−1 (t))

≥ [L−1 (t)]δ−1 [δt − L−1 (t)l(L−1 (t))] ≥ 0,

for all t > 0 and δ ≥ 1.
(6). By direct calculation, we have
h L−1 (t) i0
C

[L−1 (t)]0 l(L−1 (t))tρ − L−1 (t)[l0 (L−1 (t))(L−1 (t))0 tρ + l(L−1 (t))ρtρ−1 ]
= , t > 0.
l(L−1 (t))tρ [l(L−1 (t))tρ ]2
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SUPERCRITICAL QUASILINEAR SCHRÖDINGER EQUATION 5

So, it follows from (2.4) and (4) of Lemma 2.2 that

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[L−1 (t)]0 l(L−1 (t))tρ −L−1 (t)[l0 (L−1 (t))(L−1 (t))0 tρ + l(L−1 (t))ρtρ−1 ]

L−1 (t)l0 (L−1 (t)) ρ

= tρ − l(L−1 (t)) t − L−1 (t)l(L−1 (t))ρtρ−1
 σ2 √ 
≤ tρ 1 + 1−σ 2 − ρ < 0, t > 0,
where the last inequality is a consequence of (2.3) and the choice of σ > 0 in (1.3).
Finally, it follows from (2.4) and (3) of Lemma 2.2 that

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t
[L−1 (t)]0 t − L−1 (t) = l(L−1 (t)) − L−1 (t)
h i
t
= L−1 (t) l(L−1 (t))L −1 (t) − 1 , t > 0,

which means
h L−1 (t) i0 [L−1 (t)]0 t − L−1 (t)
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= ≥ 0, t > 0.
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t t2

Now, changing variable by

AN v = L(u) =
ˆ u
l(s)ds,


0
we can observe that the functional Ik can be rewritten in the form
1 1
ˆ ˆ ˆ
−1
Jk (v) = 2
|∇v| + V (x)|L (v)| −2
G(L−1 (v)).
2 RN 2 RN RN
DM

From Lemma 2.2, Jk is well defined in H 1 (RN ) and J ∈ C 1 (H 1 (RN ), R) with

ˆ h
0 L−1 (v) g(L−1 (v)) i
(2.5) hJk (v), φi = ∇v∇φ + V (x) −1
φ− φ ,
RN l(L (v)) l(L−1 (v))
for all v, φ ∈ H 1 (RN ).
−1
Lemma 2.3. If v ∈ H 1 (RN ) is a critical point of 1 N
√ Jk , then u = L (v) ∈ H (R ) and additionally it is
a weak solution for (2.1) if supx∈RN |u(x)| ≤ σ/ k.
Proof. It is an immediate consequence of Lemma 2.2 that u = L−1 (v) ∈ H 1 (RN ). For each ϕ ∈ H 1 (RN )
fixed, set φ = l(u)ϕ. It follows from Lemma 2.2 that φ ∈ H 1 (RN ) and
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ˆ h
L−1 (v) g(L−1 (v)) i
∇v∇φ + V (x) φ − φ = 0,
RN l(L−1 (v)) l(L−1 (v))
since v is a critical point of Jk . Thus, by calculating, we know
ˆ h i
(1 − k|u|2 )∇u∇ϕ − k|∇u|2 uϕ + V (x)uϕ − g(u)ϕ = 0
RN
√
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holds, because supx∈RN |u(x)| ≤ σ/ k. 

The following embedding result plays an important role in showing that the positive and negative
parts of a minimizing function on the partial Nehari manifold are non-trivial functions.
Proposition 2.4. The function L−1 is such that:



(1) the map v 7−→ L−1 (v) from E, || · ||E to Ls (RN ), | · |s is continuous for 2 ≤ s ≤ 2∗ ,
C

(2) under (V2 ) the above map is compact for 2 ≤ s < 2∗ , and under (V1 ) with N ≥ 2, this map is
compact for 2 < s < 2∗ .
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6 M. YANG, CARLOS. A. SANTOS, AND J. ZHOU

√ √
Proof. (1) For v ∈ E, we have |L−1 (v)| ≤ ρ|v| and |∇L−1 (v)| ≤ ρ|∇v|. And so L−1 (v) ∈ E, by
classical embedding, we know L−1 (v) ∈ Ls (RN ) for 2 ≤ s ≤ 2∗ . Now, take (vn ) a sequence in E such

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that vn → v in E. Thus, we have vn → v in Ls (RN ) for 2 ≤ s ≤ 2∗ , and
√
|L−1 vn − L−1 (v)| ≤ ρ|vn − v|.
Then ˆ ˆ
|L−1 (vn ) − L−1 (v)|s ≤ ρs/2 |vn − v|s → 0.
RN RN
That is, L−1 (vn ) → L−1 (v) in Ls (RN ).
(2) In the case (V1 ), by the compact embedding from E → Ls (RN ) for 2 ≤ s < 2∗ , we have v → L−1 (v)

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is compact from E to Ls (RN ) for 2 ≤ s < 2∗ . Similarly, we can prove the compactness for the other
case. 

3. Auxiliary Results
Before stating the auxiliary results, let us point out some consequences of our hypotheses.
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Remark 3.1. From assumption (G2 ), there exists c > 0 such that
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for each  > 0 given. AN g(t)t ≤ |t|2 + c |t|q ∀ t ∈ R

Remark 3.2. From assumption (G3 ), there exists a constant K > 0 such that
G(t) ≥ K|t|θ for all |t| > δ
for each δ > 0 given.
After these, let us associate to the functional Jk the Nehari manifold
DM

N = {v ∈ E\{0} / hJk0 (v), vi = 0, }

and the nodal Nehari manifold
M = {v ∈ N / v − , v + 6= 0 and hJk0 (v), v + i = 0 = hJk0 (v), v − i} ⊂ N.
So, we obtain from these definitions that
hJk0 (v + ), v + i = hJk0 (v), v + i = 0 and hJk0 (v − ), v − i = hJk0 (v), v − i = 0
for all v ∈ M .
Now, we are going to introduce the differentiable continuous function hvk : [0, ∞)2 → R by setting
hvk (t, s) = Jk (tv + + sv − ), that is,
1 1
ˆ ˆ ˆ
− 2 −1 − 2
v
hk (t, s) := +
|t∇v + s∇v | + +
V (x)|L (tv + sv )| − G(L−1 (tv + + sv − )),
TE

2 RN 2 RN RN
for each v ∈ E with v ± 6= 0.
Lemma 3.3. Assume that (G1 ) − (G3 ) hold. If v ∈ E with v ± 6= 0, then there exist α, β > 0 such that
hJk0 (αv + + βv − ), v + i = 0 and hJk0 (αv + + βv − ), v − i = 0,
that is, αv + + βv − ∈ M , and (α, β) ∈ (0, ∞)2 is a critical point of hvk .
EP

Proof. It follows from the definition of hvk , that

∂hvk (t, s) L−1 (tv + ) + g(L−1 (tv + )) +
ˆ ˆ ˆ
=t |∇v + |2 + V (x) v − v
(3.1) ∂t RN RN
−1
l(L (tv ))+
RN l(L
−1 (tv + ))
= hJk0 (tv + + sv − ), v + i,
for each fixed s ≥ 0 and
∂hvk (t, s) L−1 (sv − ) − g(L−1 (sv − )) −
ˆ ˆ ˆ
=s |∇v − |2 + V (x) v − v
C

∂s RN RN l(L−1 (sv − )) RN l(L

−1 (sv − ))
0 + − −
= hJk (tv + sv ), v i,
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SUPERCRITICAL QUASILINEAR SCHRÖDINGER EQUATION 7

for each fixed t ≥ 0.

So, it follows from Remark 3.1 and (3) of Lemma 2.2, that

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g(L−1 (tv + )) +
ˆ ˆ
0 + − + + − +
hJk (tv + sv ), tv i ≥ (t∇v + s∇v )(t∇v ) − tv
RN RN l(L−1 (tv + ))
−1
(tv )| + c |L−1 (tv + )|q +
|L + 2
ˆ ˆ
≥ t2 |∇v + |2 − p tv
RN RN 1/ρL−1 (tv + )
√ √
= t2 |∇v + |22 − ρt2 |v + |22 − ρc tq |v + |qq ,

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which means there exists tm > 0 sufficiently small such that
hJk0 (tm v + + sv − ), tm v + i > 0 for all s > 0,
since q > 2. Taking advantage of g, L−1 being odd functions and l being even, it follows from similar
arguments as above that
g(L−1 (−|sv|− )) −
ˆ ˆ
hJk0 (tv + + sv − ), sv − i ≥ (t∇v + + s∇v − )(s∇v − ) − −1 (−|sv|− ))
sv
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RN RN l(L
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AN
≥ s2
ˆ

RN
|∇v − |2 −
√
ˆ

RN
L−1 (−|sv − |)2 + c L−1 (−|sv − |)q −

√
p
1/ρL−1 (−|sv − |)
= s2 |∇v − |22 − ρs2 |v − |22 − ρc sq |v − |qq .
So, we get sm > 0, sufficiently small, such that
|sv |

hJk0 (tv + + sm v − ), sm v − i > 0 for all t > 0.

On the other hand, it follows from Hypothesis (G3 ) that
DM
L−1 (tv + ) G(L−1 (tv + ))
ˆ ˆ ˆ
hJk0 (tv + + sv − ), tv + i ≤ t2 |∇v + |2 + V (x) (tv) +
− θ (tv)+ .
RN RN l(L−1 (tv + )) RN l(L
−1 (tv + ))L−1 (tv + )

Set τ > 0 such that the set

A2 = {x ∈ RN ; v + (x) ≥ τ } ⊂ RN
√
is not empty. By Remark 3.2; l(t) > 1/ ρ, t > 0; and (3) of Lemma 2.2, we get
√
ˆ ˆ ˆ
hJk0 (tv + + sv − ), tv + i ≤ t2 |∇v + |2 + ρt2 V (x)(v + )2 − θKtθ (v + )θ
RN RN A2

for t > 0 large.

As a consequence, we obtain tM > 0 sufficiently large such that
TE

hJk0 (tM v + + sv − ), tM v + i < 0 for all s > 0,

since θ > 2. In an analogous way, we obtain an sM > 0 sufficiently large, such that
hJk0 (tv + + sM v − ), sM v − i < 0 for all t > 0.
In conclusion, by taking r = min{tm , sm } and R = max{tM , sM }, we have
hJk0 (rv + + sv − ), rv + i > 0, hJk0 (tv + + rv − ), rv − i > 0 for all t, s ∈ [r, R]
EP

and
hJk0 (Rv + + sv − ), Rv + i < 0, hJk0 (tv + + Rv − ), Rv − i < 0 for all t, s ∈ [r, R].
Hence, the Lemma follows from Miranda’s theorem. 
Lemma 3.4. Assume that (V1 ), or (V2 ) and (G1 ) − (G3 ) hold. Then:
(i) for all v ∈ N , we have
√ ˆ
θ − 2 ρ 
C

ˆ
Jk (v) ≥ |∇v|2 + V (x)|L−1 (v)|2 ,
2θ RN RN
AC
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Accepted manuscript to appear in CCM

IP
8 M. YANG, CARLOS. A. SANTOS, AND J. ZHOU

(ii) there is γ > 0 such that

CR
ˆ ˆ
|∇v|2 + V (x)|L−1 (v)|2 ≥ γ, for all v ∈ N
RN RN

and ˆ ˆ
|∇v ± |2 + V (x)|L−1 (v ± )|2 ≥ γ, for all v ∈ M.
RN RN

Proof. (i): By (3) of Lemma 2.1 and assumption (G3 ), we know

US
1 1 g(L−1 (v))v
ˆ ˆ ˆ
G(L−1 (v)) ≤ g(L−1 (v))L−1 (v) ≤ .
RN θ RN θ RN l(L−1 (v))
Then, by using this inequality and (2.5) for v ∈ N , we have
1 1 L−1 (v)v
ˆ ˆ ˆ
G(L−1 (v)) ≤ |∇v|2 + V (x) ,
RN θ RN θ RN l(L−1 (v))
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√
and consequently, by adding and subtracting the term ρ/θ RN V (x)|L−1 (v)|2 to the expression of Jk ,
there holds

Jk (v) ≥
2θ
√ ˆ
θ − 2 ρ
RN
AN
|∇v|2 +
ˆ

RN
 1ˆ
V (x)|L−1 (v)|2 +
´

θ RN
h√
V (x) ρ|L−1 (v)|2 −
L−1 (v)v i
l(L−1 (v))
.

Now, applying (3) of Lemma 2.2 again, we have

√ L−1 (v)v
ρ|L−1 (v)|2 − ≥ 0,
l(L−1 (v))
DM

which leads to conclusion (i).

Proof of (ii). By using Remark 3.1, the definition of N , the facts of l is even while L is odd, and (3) of
Lemma 2.2, we obtain
L−1 (v)v g(L−1 (v))v g(L−1 (v))L−1 (v)v
ˆ ˆ ˆ ˆ
|∇v|2 + V (x) = =
RN RN l(L−1 (v)) RNˆ l(L
−1 (v))
RN l(L
−1 (v))L−1 (v)
√
≤ ρ g(L−1 (v))L−1 (v)
ˆ hRN i
≤ |L−1 (v)|2 + c |L−1 (v)|q ,
RN
TE

for each  > 0 given. Now, it follows from (3) of Lemma 2.2 again that
1h i L−1 (v)v
ˆ ˆ ˆ ˆ
2 −1 2 2
|∇v| + V (x)|L (v)| ≤ |∇v| + V (x)
(3.2) 2 RN RN ˆRN h RN l(L−1 (v))
i
≤ |L (v)| + c |L−1 (v)|q ,
−1 2
RN
EP

for each  > 0 given.

On the other hand, by Lemma 2.2, we have that L−1 (v) ∈ H 1 (RN ) for each v ∈ H 1 (RN ). Since
V ≥ V0 > 0, we have
ˆ hˆ i
(3.3) |L−1 (v)|2 ≤ C1 |∇v|2 + V (x)|L−1 (v)|2 ,
R2 RN

for all v ∈ E.
C

Besides this, by taking 0 < τ < 1 such that q = τ 2 + (1 − τ )2∗ , it follows from (3) of Lemma 2.2,
0 < V0 ≤ V (x), x ∈ RN , inequality (3.3), the Hölder inequality, and from the Sobolev embedding
AC
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Accepted manuscript to appear in CCM

IP
SUPERCRITICAL QUASILINEAR SCHRÖDINGER EQUATION 9

theorem, that
ˆ τ  ˆ 

CR
∗ 1−τ
ˆ
|L−1 (v)|q ≤ |L−1 (v)|2 |L−1 (v)|2
RN RN  ˆ RN  ˆ 
2∗ (1−τ ) τ ∗ 1−τ
−1
≤ρ 2 |L (v)|2 v2
RN RN
(3.4) 2∗ (1−τ ) ∗
ˆ τ  ˆ  2∗ (1−τ
2
)
2 (1−τ ) −1
≤ρ 2 S |L (v)|2 |∇v|2
RN RN
hˆ i 2τ +2∗2(1−τ )
2 −1 2
≤ C2 |∇v| + V (x)|L (v)| ,
RN

US
where C1 , C2 are positive constants.
Now, by using (3.2), (3.3) and (3.4), we obtain
1 h ˆ i hˆ i 2τ +2∗2(1−τ )
2 −1 2 2 −1 2
− C1 |∇v| + V (x)|L (v)| ≤ c C2 |∇v| + V (x)|L (v)| ,
2 RN RN

for  > 0 sufficiently small. That is,

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h 1/2 − C i 2(1−τ
ˆ

RN AN
|∇v|2 + V (x)|L−1 (v)|2 ≥

for all v ∈ N . In a similar way, we obtain

ˆ
c  C 2
1
N −2
)
:= γ > 0,

|∇v ± |2 + V (x)|L−1 (v ± )|2 ≥ γ, for all v ∈ M.

RN

This finishes the proof. 

Lemma 3.5. Assume the same hypotheses of Lemma 3.4, and (vn ) being a sequence in M . Then
DM

ˆ
lim inf |L−1 (vn± )|q dx > 0.
n→∞ RN

Proof. It follows from Lemma 3.4-(ii), (3.2) and (3.3), that

1  1 h ˆ ˆ i
0< − C1 γ ≤ − C1 |∇vn± |2 + V (x)|L−1 (vn± )|2
2 2ˆ RN RN
≤ c |L−1 (vn± )|q ,
RN

for all n ∈ N. 
TE

Remark 3.6. By Lemma 3.5 and (3) of Lemma 2.2, there exists a constant γ1 > 0 such that
ˆ
|vn± |q ≥ γ1 > 0.
RN

Lemma 3.7. If v ∈ M and (G4 ) hold, then

∂hvk ∂hvk
(t, s) > 0 for 0 < t < 1, (t, s) < 0 for t > 1,
∂t ∂t
EP

for all s ≥ 0, and

∂hvk ∂hvk
(t, s) > 0 for 0 < s < 1, (t, s) < 0, for s > 1,
∂s ∂s
for all t ≥ 0. In particular, hvk (t, s) < hvk (1, 1) = Jk (v) for all t, s ≥ 0 such that (t, s) 6= (1, 1).
Proof. First, it follows from (3.1) that
n ˆ |∇v + |2 ˆ h g(L−1 (tv + )) V (x)L−1 (tv + ) i + ρ+1 o
C

∂hvk (t, s) ρ
=t − −1 (tv + ))(tv + )ρ
− (v ) ,
∂t RN t
ρ−1
RN l(L l(L−1 (tv + ))(tv + )ρ
AC
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IP
10 M. YANG, CARLOS. A. SANTOS, AND J. ZHOU

for all s ≥ 0 given. Now, by using (G4 ), (5), (6) of Lemma 2.2, and the monotonicity of l, L−1 , we obtain

CR
g(L−1 (tv + )) V (x)L−1 (tv + )
−1
−
+
l(L (tv ))(tv ) + ρ l(L−1 (tv + ))(tv + )ρ

g(L−1 (tv + )) h (L−1 (tv + )) iρ 1 L−1 (tv + )

= − V (x)
(L−1 (tv + ))ρ tv + l(L−1 (tv + )) l(L−1 (tv + ))(tv + )ρ

g(L−1 (v + )) h (L−1 (v + )) iρ 1 L−1 (v + )

< − V (x)
(L−1 (v + ))ρ v+ l(L−1 (v + )) l(L−1 (v + ))(v + )ρ

US
g(L−1 (v + )) L−1 (v + )
= −1 + + ρ
− V (x) −1
l(L (v ))(v ) l(L (v + ))(v + )ρ
for 0 < t < 1, and in a similar way, we obtain
g(L−1 (tv + )) V (x)L−1 (tv + )
−
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l(L−1 (tv + ))(tv + )ρ l(L−1 (tv + ))(tv + )ρ

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for t > 1.
AN >
g(L−1 (v + ))
−1 +
l(L (v ))(v ) + ρ
−
V (x)L−1 (v + )
l(L−1 (v + ))(v + )ρ

So, it follows from above informations, (5) of Lemma 2.2, and the hypothesis v ∈ M , that
∂hvk ∂hvk
(3.5) (t, s) > 0 for 0 < t < 1, and (t, s) < 0 for t > 1
∂t ∂t
for all s ≥ 0, and in a similar way together with the facts of l being even and L odd, we get
DM

∂hvk ∂hvk
(3.6) (t, s) > 0 for 0 < s < 1, and (t, s) < 0 for s > 1
∂s ∂s
hold for all t ≥ 0, as well.
In particular, given (t, s) ∈ [0, ∞)2 , it follows from (3.5) that hvk (t, s) < hvk (1, s). And by (3.6), we
have hvk (1, s) < hvk (1, 1). That is, hvk (t, s) < hvk (1, 1) = Jk (v). So, the Lemma is proved. 

It follows from above informations, that:

Remark 3.8. For the more general situation that v ∈ E, instead of the v ∈ M , we still can obtain:
∂hv
(i) ∂t (t, s)
k
< 0 for t > 1 and each s ≥ 0 given, just using hJk0 (v + ), v + i ≤ 0,
∂hv
< 0 for s > 1 and each t ≥ 0 given, just using hJk0 (v − ), v − i ≤ 0.
TE

(ii) ∂s (t, s)
k

Remark 3.9. If v ∈ M , then (1, 1) is an unique critical point of hvk .

Remark 3.10. If v ∈ E with v ± 6= 0, then the critical point (α, β) = (αv , βv ) ∈ (0, +∞)2 of hvk , given
by Lemma 3.3, is unique.
In fact, by Lemma 3.4 there are α, β > 0 such that (α, β) is a critical point of hvk . Finally, assume that
(α1 , β1 ) and (α2 , β2 ) are two critical points of hvk , then
EP

α2 β2
(α1 v + ) + (β1 v − ) = α2 v + + β2 v − .
α1 β1
Since α1 v + +β1 v − ∈ M , then by the Remark 3.9, we have α2 /α1 = β2 /β1 = 1, and so (α1 , β1 ) = (α2 , β2 ).

4. Proof of Theorem
C

Now, we are ready to prove Theorem 1.1 by applying the auxiliary results in Section 3 together with
Deformation arguments.
AC
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IP
SUPERCRITICAL QUASILINEAR SCHRÖDINGER EQUATION 11

Proof of Theorem for λ = 0. It follows from Lemma 3.4 that there exists c0 > 0 such that

CR
c0 = inf Jk (w).
w∈M

Let (wn ) ⊂ M be a minimizing sequence such that Jk (wn ) → c0 .

Claim : (wn ) ⊂ E is bounded.
In fact, assume by contradiction that ||wn || → +∞ up to subsequence, that is,
ˆ ˆ
|∇wn |2 + V (x)wn2 = ||wn ||2E → ∞.
RN RN
So, at least one of the two terms goes to infinity. If

US
ˆ 1/2
|∇wn |2 → ∞,
RN
it would follow from Lemma 3.4 that
√ ˆ
θ−2 ρ
Jk (wn ) ≥ |∇wn |2 → ∞,
2θ RN
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which is a contradiction, because (Jk (wn )) ⊂ R is bounded. Now, if

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AN ˆ

RN
V (x)wn2 → ∞,

then it would follow from Lemma 3.4 again and (3) of Lemma 2.2, that
θ−2 ρ
√ ˆ
Jk (wn ) ≥ V (x)|L−1 (wn )|2
2θ√ ˆRN
θ−2 ρ
≥ V (x)wn2 → ∞,
2θ RN
DM
which is a contradiction again.
Hence, without loss of generality, we can assume up to a subsequence that there exist w, w1 , w2 ∈
H 1 (RN ) such that
wn * w wn+ * w1 wn− * w2 in H 1 (RN ),
wn * w wn+ * w1 wn− * w2 in Lγ (RN ) for all γ ∈ [2, 2∗ ]
and
wn −→ w wn+ −→ w1 wn− −→ w2 in Lγloc (RN ) for all γ ∈ (1, 2∗ ).
Since the mappings w → w+ and w → w− are continuous from Lγloc (RN ) in Lγloc (RN ), we obtain
w1 = w+ ≥ 0 and w2 = w− ≤ 0. Besides this, it follows from Proposition 2.4, that
L−1 (wn± ) → L−1 (w± ) in Lγ (RN ) for all γ ∈ (2, 2∗ ).
TE

Then by Lemma 3.5, we conclude that w± = 6 0 and consequently w = w+ + w− is a sign-changing

function. More, by Remark 3.10, there exist an unique (α, β) ∈ (0, ∞)2 critical point of hw
k such that
αw+ + βw− ∈ M . We shall prove that
Jk (αw+ + βw− ) = inf Jk .
M
In order to do this, we first note that, as a consequence of the hypotheses on g,
g(L−1 (wn± ))wn± g(L−1 (w± ))w±
EP

ˆ ˆ
−→ .
RN l(L−1 (wn± )) RN l(L−1 (w± ))
So, together with Fatou’s Lemma, we obtain that Jk is weak lower semi-continuous.
Hence, by wn ∈ M , it follows from Lemma 3.7 that
− + − wn
c0 ≤ hw +
k (α, β) = Jk (αw + βw ) ≤ lim inf Jk (αwn + βwn ) = lim inf hk (α, β)

≤ lim inf hw + −
k (1, 1) = lim inf Jk (wn + wn ) = lim inf Jk (wn ) = c0 ,
n
C

that is, Jk (αw+ + βw− ) = c0 = inf w∈M Jk (w).

AC
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IP
12 M. YANG, CARLOS. A. SANTOS, AND J. ZHOU

Set v + = αw+ and v − = βw− . So, v = v + + v − is a sign-changing function. Now, by using a

quantitative deformation lemma and adapting the arguments in [3, 18] with slight technical changes, we

CR
are going to show Jk0 (v) = 0.
Suppose, by contradiction, that Jk0 (v) 6= 0. Then there exist δ > 0 and ν such that
||Jk0 (w)|| ≥ ν for every w ∈ E with ||w − v|| ≤ 2δ.
Since v + 6= 0 and v − = 6 0, we can take L = min{||v + ||, ||v − ||} > 0 and, without loss of generality, we
may assume 6δ < L.
Let D = [ 12 , 32 ] × [ 12 , 32 ]. Since, hJk0 (v ± ), v ± i = 0 and by Lemma 3.7,

US
Jk (tv + + sv − ) < Jk (v) = c0 ,
holds for (t, s) ∈ D with t 6= 1 or s 6= 1, we obtain that
c̃ = max Jk (tv + + sv − ) < c0 .
∂D

Applying [ [21] Lemma 2.3] with  = min{(c0 −c̃)/2, νδ/8} and S = B(v, δ), there exists η ∈ C([0, 1]×E, E)
such that
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/ Jk−1 [c0 − 2, c0 + 2] ∩ B(v, 2δ);

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(i) η(θ, u) = u if θ = 0 or if u ∈
c0 +
(ii) η(1, Jk ) ∩ B(v, δ) ⊂ Jk ; c0 −
AN
(iii) Jk (η(1, w)) ≤ Jk (w) for every w ∈ E,
where Jka = {w ∈ E : Jk (w) ≤ a}. Consequently, we have
(4.1) max Jk (η(1, tv + + sv − )) < c0 .
(t,s)∈D

On the other hand, we claim that there exists (t0 , s0 ) ∈ D such that
η(1, t0 v + + s0 v − ) ∈ M.
DM

In fact, define ϕ(t, s) = η(1, tv + + sv − ) and

Ψ(t, s) = (hJk0 (ϕ+ (t, s)), ϕ+ (t, s)i, hJk0 (ϕ− (t, s)), ϕ− (t, s)i)
for t > 0 and s > 0. Since,
|v − (tv + + sv − )|| = ||(v + + v − ) − (tv + + sv − )||
= |1 − t||v + || + |1 − s|||v − ||
≥ |1 − t||v + ||
(4.2)
≥ |1 − t|L
≥ 6|1 − t|δ
> 2δ ⇐⇒ t < 32 or t > 43 ,
TE

1
it follows from property (i) for η and inequality (4.2) that ϕ(t, s) = tv + + sv − if t = 2 for s ∈ [ 12 , 32 ].
Thus,

Ψ( 21 , s) = hJk0 (ϕ+ ( 21 , s)), ϕ+ ( 12 , s)i, hJk0 (ϕ− ( 12 , s)), ϕ− ( 12 , s)i


= hJk0 ( 12 v + ), 12 v + i, hJk0 (sv − ), sv − )i ,
and it follows from (3.5) that
1 1 1 ∂hvk 1
(4.3) hJk0 ( v + ), v + i = ( , s) > 0.
EP

2 2 2 ∂t 2
On the other hand, using property (i) for η again and t = 23 in (4.2), ϕ(t, s) = tv + + sv − for s ∈ [ 12 , 23 ],


Ψ( 32 , s) = hJk0 (ϕ+ ( 32 , s)), ϕ+ ( 32 , s)i, hJk0 (ϕ− ( 23 , s))ϕ− ( 32 , s)i


= hJk0 ( 32 v + ), 23 v + i, hJk0 (sv − ), sv − i .
Again, it follows from (3.5) that
C

3 3 3 ∂hvk 3
(4.4) hJk0 ( v + ), v + i = ( , s) < 0.
2 2 2 ∂t 2
AC
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Accepted manuscript to appear in CCM

IP
SUPERCRITICAL QUASILINEAR SCHRÖDINGER EQUATION 13

With analogous calculations, by (3.6), we obtain

CR
1 1 1 ∂hvk 1
(4.5) hJk0 ( v − ), v − i = ( , s) > 0
2 2 2 ∂s 2
and
3 3 3 ∂hvk 3
(4.6) hJk0 ( v − ), v − i = ( , s) < 0.
2 2 2 ∂s 2
Noting that the function Ψ is continuous on D and taking (4.3)-(4.6) into account, we can apply Miranda’s
theorem to conclude that there exists (t0 , s0 ) ∈ D such that Ψ(t0 , s0 ) = (0, 0). This and (4.1) lead to a

US
contradiction. Hence, we conclude√that v is a critical point of Jk . So, by Lemma 2.3, we just need to
show that |u|∞ = |L−1 (v)|∞ ≤ σ/ k holds to conclude that u is a solution of problem (1.1) with λ = 0.
Now, set ϕ = L−1 (v)l(L−1 (v)). It follows from Lemma 2.2, that
L−1 (v)l0 (L−1 (v))
|ϕ| = |L−1 (v)l(L−1 (v))| ≤ |v|, and |∇ϕ| = |1 + ||∇v| ≤ |∇v|,
l(L−1 (v))
that is, ϕ ∈ H 1 (RN ). So, by taking ϕ as a test function in (2.5), we obtain
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ˆ h
L−1 (v)l0 (L−1 (v)) i
RN
1+
AN
l(L−1 (v))
As a consequence of (4) of Lemma 2.2, we have
ˆ
|∇v|2 + V (x)|L−1 (v)|2 − g(L−1 (v))L−1 (v) = 0.

|∇v|2 + V (x)|L−1 (v)|2 − g(L−1 (v))L−1 (v) ≥ 0.

RN
Since v is a critical point of Jk , it follows that
θc0 = θJk (v) − hJk0 (v), L−1 (v)l(L−1 (v))i
DM
ˆ
≥ θ−2
2 |∇v|2 + V (x)|L−1 (v)|2 .
RN

Then, by (3) of Lemma 2.2,

2θc0
(4.7) ||v||2E ≤ .
θ−2
For each m ∈ N and β > 1 given, define
Am = {x ∈ RN ; |v|β−1 ≤ m} and Bm = RN \Am ,
and 
v|v|2(β−1) in Am ,
vm =
TE

m2 v in Bm .
We know vm ∈ H 1 (RN ), vm ≤ vm+1 , vm ≤ |v|2β−1 , and

(2β − 1)|v|2(β−1) ∇v in Am ,
∇vm =
m2 ∇v in Bm ,
that is, vm can be used as a test function. Besides this, we have
ˆ ˆ ˆ
EP

(4.8) ∇v∇vm = (2β − 1) |v|2(β−1) |∇v|2 + m2 |∇v|2 .

RN Am Bm

Letting 
v|v|β−1 in Am ,
wm =
mv in Bm ,
2
we obtain wm = vvm ≤ |v|2β , wm ≤ wm+1 , and

C

β|v|β−1 ∇v in Am ,
∇wm =
m∇v in Bm .
AC
 T
Accepted manuscript to appear in CCM

IP
14 M. YANG, CARLOS. A. SANTOS, AND J. ZHOU

So,

CR
ˆ ˆ ˆ
(4.9) |∇wm |2 = β 2 |v|2(β−1) |∇v|2 + m2 |∇v|2 .
RN Am Bm

As a consequence of (4.8) and (4.9), we obtain

ˆ ˆ
(4.10) [|∇wm |2 − ∇v∇vm ] = (β − 1)2 |v|2(β−1) |∇v|2 .
RN Am

Taking vm as a test function, it follows from (4.8) and (4.10) that

L−1 (v)

US
ˆ ˆ
2 2
|∇wm | +β V (x) −1
vm
RN RN ˆ l(L (v))
L−1 (v)
ˆ ˆ
2 2(β−1) 2 2
= (β − 1) |v| |∇v| + ∇v∇vm + β V (x) vm
RN ˆ RN l(L−1 (v))
h (β − 1)2 Am i ˆ −1
L (v)
≤ +1 ∇v∇vm + +β 2 V (x) v
−1 (v)) m
2β − 1 R N R N l(L
−1
L (v)
ˆ
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≤ β2 [∇v∇vm + V (x) v ]
−1 (v)) m
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ˆR l(L

ˆ
2 2
ˆ
= β2
R
N

Now, it follows from Remark 3.1 that

L−1 (v)
−1
AN
g(L (v))
l(L−1 (v))

2
ˆ
vm .

|L−1 (v)|2 2
ˆ
c |L−1 (v)|q
|∇wm | +β V (x) −1
vm ≤ β −1 −1
|vm |+β |v |,
−1 (v))L−1 (v)| m
RN RN l(L (v)) RN |l(L (v))L (v)| RN |l(L
that is,
L−1 (v) |L−1 (v)|2
ˆ ˆ
2 2
β V (x) v ≥ β |v |,
DM
m −1 (v))L−1 (v)| m
RN l(L−1 (v)) RN |l(L
for  > 0 sufficiently small. So, we have
c |L−1 (v)|q
ˆ ˆ
|∇wm |2 ≤ β 2 −1 −1
|vm |
RN ˆRN |l(L (v))L (v)|
q
≤ β2 c ρ 2 |v|q−2 wm2
.
RN
Then, it follows from the Sobolev inequality that
ˆ ∗
 NN−2 ˆ
|wm |2 ≤S |∇wm |2
Am RNˆ
q
TE

2
≤ Sβ c ρ 2 |v|q−2 wm
2
.
RN
The Hölder inequality implies that
ˆ  NN−2 ˆ 1/r1
2∗ q
2 q−2
|wm | ≤ c ρ Sβ |v|2∗
2 |wm |2r1 ,
Am RN

where 1/r1 + (q − 2)/2∗ = 1.

Since, |wm | ≤ |v|β in RN and |wm | = |v|β in Am , we have
EP

ˆ ∗
 NN−2 q
ˆ 1/r1
|v|β2 ≤ c ρ 2 Sβ 2 |v|2q−2
∗ |v|2βr1 ,
Am RN

which implies, by the Monotone Convergence Theorem, that

q
(4.11) |v|β2∗ ≤ β 1/β (c ρ 2 S|v|q−2
2∗ )
1/2β
|v|2βr1
So, taking σ = 2∗ /(2r1 ) and set β = σ i , i = 1, 2, . . . , in an iterative way in (4.11), we get
C

Pi q Pi
j/σ j ) 1/σ j )
|v|σi 2∗ ≤ σ ( j=1 (c ρ 2 S|v|2q−2
∗ )
(1/2 j=1 |v|2∗ ,
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SUPERCRITICAL QUASILINEAR SCHRÖDINGER EQUATION 15

that is, by doing i → ∞ and using the limitation of ||v||E , given by (4.7), together with the Sobolev
inequality, we get |v|∞ ≤ C0 , where C0 > 0 is a real constant independent of k > 0.

CR
Now, it follows from Lemma 2.2-(3) that
√ √ √
|u|∞ = |L−1 (v)|∞ ≤ ρ|v|∞ ≤ ρC0 ≤ σ/ k
√ √
holds for all k ∈ (0, k0 ), where k0 > 0 is such that ρC0 ≤ σ/ k0 . Thus, Lemma 2.3 implies that
problem (1.1), with λ = 0, admits a least energy nodal solution.
To finish the proof, let λ > 0 be a parameter and define gλ,τ (t) = λρ + g(t), t ∈ RN by
 p−2
 |t| t, 0 ≤ |t| ≤ τ,

US
ρτ (t) = τ p−1
 g(t), |t| > τ,
g(τ )
for each τ > 0 given. So, gλ,τ fulfills assumptions (G1 )-(G4 ). Thus, by applying the prior case (problem
(1.1) with λ = 0), there exists an sign-changing solution u = uλ,τ ∈ H 1 (RN ) of the equation
−∆u + k2 u∆u2 + V (x)u = gλ,τ (u) in RN .
√
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for 0 ≤ k < k0 with maxx∈RN |uλ,τ (x)| ≤ σ/ k and k0 a real constant.

Commun. Contemp. Math. Downloaded from www.worldscientific.com

of the equation AN
Hence, by defining v = vλ,τ ∈ H 1 (RN ) as u = L−1 (v), we know that v is a least energy nodal solution

−∆v + V (x) l(LL−1 (v)

−1 (v)) =
gλ,τ (L−1 (v))
l(L−1 (v))
Repeating the arguments that used to obtain (4.7), we get that
in RN .

(4.12) ||v||E ≤ η, for some η > 0 independent of λ, τ > 0.

Now, it follows from (G2 ) and the definition of gλ,τ ,
τ p−1 q−1
for all t ∈ RN and τ large.
DM
gλ,τ (t) ≤ |t| + C[1 + λ ]|t|
g(τ )
Using the same definition Am , wm and vm as before, we have
ˆ
q
h τ p−1 i
ˆ
|∇wm |2 ≤ Cρ 2 β 2 1 + λ |v|q−2 |wm |2 .
RN g(τ ) RN
On the other hand, it follows from the Sobolev inequality that
ˆ  NN−2 ˆ
|wm |2 ≤S |∇wm |2
Am RN
q
h τ p−1 i
ˆ
≤ CSρ 2 β 2 1 + λ |v|q−2 |wm |2 .
g(τ ) RN
TE

Thus, it follows by the Hölder inequality that

ˆ  NN−2 q
h τ p−1 i q−2 
ˆ 1/r1
|wm |2 ≤ CSρ 2 β 2 1 + λ |v|2∗ |wm |2r1 ,
Am g(τ ) RN

where 1/r1 + (q − 2)/2∗ = 1.

Now, it follows from (4.12), |wm | ≤ |v|β in RN and |wm | = |v|β in Am that
ˆ ∗
 NN−2 q
h τ p−1 i
ˆ 1/r1
|v|β2 ≤ CSρ 2 β 2 η q−2 1 + λ |v|2βr1
EP

,
Am g(τ ) RN
by using the Monotone Convergence Theorem, we obtain
n q
h τ p−1 io1/2β
|v|β2∗ ≤ β 1/β CSρ 2 η q−2 1 + λ ||v||2βr1 .
g(τ )
Take σ = 2∗ /(2r1 ) and let β = σ i , i = 1, 2, . . . , we get
n h Pi
τ p−1 io(1/2 j=1 1/σ )
C

P j
q
( ij=1 j/σ j ) q−2
|v|σi 2∗ ≤ σ CSρ η 2 1+λ |v|2∗ ,
g(τ )
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IP
16 M. YANG, CARLOS. A. SANTOS, AND J. ZHOU

that is, by taking the limit of i → ∞ and using (4.12) together with the Sobolev inequality, we get

CR
h τ p−1 i 2∗1−q
|v|∞ ≤ C0 1 + λ ,
g(τ )
where C0 > 0 is a real constant independent of λ, τ > 0.
Finally, choose τ > C0 sufficiently large. So, there is a λ∗ = λ∗ (τ ) > 0 such that for each fixed
0 ≤ λ ∈ (0, λ∗ ], the inequality
h τ p−1 i 2∗1−q
C0 1 + λ ≤τ
g(τ )

US
holds. So, it follows from the definition of gλ,τ , Lemma 2.2, and above inequality, that u = uλ,τ =
L−1 (vλ,τ ) is a solution of equation (1.1). This ends our proof. 

Acknowledgements. The authors would like to thank the anonymous referee for his/her useful
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comments and suggestions which help to improve the presentation of the paper greatly.

AN References
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[20] TM. Struwe, Superlinear elliptic boundary value problems with rotational symmetry, Arch. Math. 39 (1982), 233-240. 1
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SUPERCRITICAL QUASILINEAR SCHRÖDINGER EQUATION 17

(M. Yang) Department of Mathematics, Zhejiang Normal University,

Jinhua 321004, People’s Republic of China

CR
E-mail address: mbyang@zjnu.edu.cn

(Carlos. A. Santos) Universidade de Brası́lia, Departamento de Matemática,

70910-900, Brası́lia - DF - Brazil
E-mail address: csantos@unb.br

(J. Zhou) Universidade de Brası́lia, Departamento de Matemática,

70910-900, Brası́lia - DF - Brazil
E-mail address: jiazzheng@gmail.com

US
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AN
DM
TE
C EP
AC