ISSN 1995-0802, Lobachevskii Journal of Mathematics, 2018, Vol. 39, No. 9, pp. 1327–1331.


c Pleiades Publishing, Ltd., 2018.

On the Nonlinear Schrödinger Equation

with a Variable Damping Term
Mohamad Darwich*

(Submitted by A. V. Lapin)
Mathematics Departement, Lebanese University Faculty of Sciences,
Rafic Hariri University Campus, Hadath, Lebanon
Received February 8, 2018

Abstract—We consider the L2 -critical nonlinear Schrödinger equation with an inhomogeneous

damping coefficient a(x). We prove the global existence of the solution in H 1 (Rd ) and we give
the minimal time of the blow up for some initial data.

DOI: 10.1134/S1995080218090378
Keywords and phrases: Damped nonlinear Schrödinger equation, blow-up, global existence.

1. INTRODUCTION
In this paper, we study the Cauchy problem for the L2 -critical nonlinear Schrödinger equations

iut + Δu + |u|4/d u + ia(x)u = 0, (t, x) ∈ [0, ∞[×Rd ,
(1.1)
u(0, x) = u0 ∈ H 1 (Rd )

with a real inhomogeneous damping term a ∈ C 1 (Rd , R) ∩ W 1,∞ (Rd , R) and initial data u(0) = u0 ∈
H 1 (Rd ). Equation (1.1) arises in several areas of nonlinear optics and plasma physics. The inhomoge-
neous damping term corresponds to an electromagnetic wave absorbed by an inhomogenous medium
(cf [1, 2]).
In the case of a constant damping term (i.e a(x) = a) equation (1.1) was studied by many authors
(see for example [3] and [4]) and some results on the global existence and the blow up solutions are
obtained.
However, in the inhomogeneous damping case Dias and Figueira [5] studied the supercritical case
(|u|p u with p > 4/d) and showed that blow-up in finite time can occur, using the virial method. On
the other hand, Correia in [6] has studied the equation in dimension one, and he proved the existence of
blowup phenomena in the energy space H 1 , and up to our knowledge no global existence result for this
equation. Our aim in this paper is to provide the global existence result and a lower bound on blow up
times for a class of initial data.
Let us notice that for a = 0 (1.1) becomes the L2 -critical nonlinear Schrödinger equation

iut + Δu + |u|4/d u = 0,
(1.2)
u(0) = u0 ∈ H 1 (Rd ).

The Cauchy problem for (1.2) is locally well-posed in H 1 (Rd ) (see Kato [7] and also Cazenave [8]): for
any initial datum u0 ∈ H 1 (Rd ), there exist T ∈ (0, ∞] and a unique solution u(t) of (1.2) with u(0) = u0
such that u ∈ C([0, T ); H 1 (Rd )). Moreover, if T < ∞ then lim ||u(t)||H 1 (Rd ) = +∞.
t→T
*
E-mail: Mohamad.Darwich@lmpt.univ-tours.fr

1327
1328 DARWICH

Let us mention that in the case a = 0 the same results on the local Cauchy problem for (1.1) can be
established in exactly the same way as in the case a = 0, since the same Strichartz estimates hold.
However, special solutions play a fundamental role for the description of the dynamics of (1.2). They
are the solitary waves of the form u(t, x) = exp(it)Q(x), where Q solves
ΔQ + Q|Q|4/d = Q. (1.3)
This equation (1.2) has the following conserved quantities:
 1/2
L -norm: ||u(t)||L2 =
2
|u(t, x)| dx
2
= ||u(0)||L2 .

4/d+2
Energy: E(u(t)) = (1/2)||∇u||2L2 − [d/(4 + 2d)]||u||L4/d+2 = E(u(0)).
In the case of (1.1), there do not exist conserved quantities anymore. However, it is easy to prove
that, if u is a solution of (1.1), then

d
||u(t)||L2 = − a(x)|u(t, x)|2 dx, t ∈ [0, T ),
2
(1.4)
dt
  
d
E(u(t)) = − a(x)∇u(t, x)dx + a(x)u(t, x)4/d+2 −  (∇u∇a(x))udx. (1.5)
dt
Remark 1.1. 1) Note that by (1.4) we obtain
exp[−t||a||L∞ ]||u0 ||L2 ≤ ||u(t, .)||L2 (Rd ) ≤ ||u0 ||L2 exp[t||a||L∞ ] ∀t ≥ 0.

2) If a(x) > 0 ∀x ∈ Rd , then ||u(t)||L2 ≤ ||u0 ||L2 ∀t ≥ 0.

Our results can be summarized as follows.
Theorem 1. Let u0 ∈ H 1 (Rd ).
1. If a(x) > 0 and ||u0 ||L2 ≤ ||Q||L2 , then the corresponding solution of (1.1) is global in H 1 .
2. If there exists an initial data u0 ∈ H 1 with ||u0 ||L2 ≤ ||Q||L2 such that the corresponding
solution of (1.1) blows up at finite time T , then T ≥ ||a||−1∞ log(||Q||L2 /||u0 ||L2 ).

2. L2 -CONCENTRATION
In this section we prove Theorem 1 by extending the proof of the L2 -concentration phenomenon,
proved by Ohta and Todorova [4] in the radial case, to the non radial case.
Hmidi and Keraani showed in [9] the L2 -concentration for the equation (1.2) without the hypothese
of radiality, using the following
Theorem 2. Let (vn )n be a bounded family of H 1 (Rd ), such that
lim sup ||∇vn ||L2 (Rd ) ≤ M and lim sup ||vn ||L4/d+2 ≥ m. (2.1)
n→+∞ n→+∞

Then there exists (xn )n ⊂ Rd such that vn (· + xn )  V weakly with

 d/4 d/2+1
d m +1
||V ||L2 (Rd ) ≥ d/2
||Q||L2 (Rd ) .
d+2 M
See Theorem 1.1 in [9] and [10] for the Proof.
Now we have the following one:
Theorem 3. Assume that u0 ∈ H 1 (Rd ) and suppose that the solution of (1.1) with u(0) = u0
blows up in finite time T ∈ (0, +∞). Then, for any function w(t) satisfying w(t) ||∇u(t)||L2 (Rd ) →
∞ as t → T , there exists x(t) ∈ Rd such that, up to a subsequence,
lim sup ||u(t)||L2 (|x−x(t)|<w(t)) ≥ ||Q||L2 (Rd ) .
t→T

To show this theorem we shall need the following

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 ON THE NONLINEAR SCHRÖDINGER EQUATION 1329

Lemma 1. Let T ∈ (0, +∞), and assume that a function F : [0, T ) −→ (0, +∞) is continuous,
and limt→T F (t) = +∞. Then, there exists a sequence (tk )k such that tk → T and
⎡ ⎤
tk
lim ⎣(F (tk ))−1 F (τ )dτ ⎦ = 0. (2.2)
tk →T
0

For the proof see Lemma 11 in [4].

Proof of Theorem 3. The proof is inspired by Theorem 2.1 in [9]: suppose that there exists an initial
data u0 in H 1 such that the corresponding solution blows up at finite time T . By the energy identity (1.5),
we have
t
E(u(t)) = E(u0 ) − H(u(τ ))dτ, t ∈ [0, T [, (2.3)
0

where
  
H(u(t)) = − a(x)|∇u(t, x)|2 dx + a(x)|u(t, x)|4/d+2 −  (∇u.∇a)udx.

Let us recall the Gagliardo–Nirenberg inequality

2+4/d 4/d
||u||L2+4/d ≤ C||∇u||2L2 ||u||L2 . (2.4)
Note that (1.4) gives that
||u0 ||L2 exp[−t||a||L∞ ] ≤ ||u||L2 ≤ ||u0 ||L2 exp[t||a||L∞ ]. (2.5)
Now using (2.4) and (2.5) we obtain that
2+4/d
|H(u(t))| ≤ ||a||L∞ ||∇u(t)||2L2 (Rd ) + ||a||L∞ ||u(t)||L2+4/d + ||∇a||L∞ ||u||L2 ||∇u||L2
4/d
≤ ||a||L∞ ||∇u(t)||2L2 (Rd ) + C||a||L∞ exp[t||a||L∞ ]||∇u||2L2 ||u0 ||L2
+ exp[t||a||L∞ ]||∇a||L∞ ||u0 ||L2 ||∇u||L2
for all t ∈ [0, T [. Then
|H(u(t))| ≤ C(||a||H 1 , ||u0 ||L2 ) exp[t||a||L∞ ]||∇u||2L2 .
Moreover, we have lim ||∇u(t)||L2 (Rd ) = +∞, thus by Lemma 1 there exists a sequence (tk )k such that
t→T
tk → T and
⎡ ⎤
tk
lim ⎣||∇u(tk )||−2
L2 (Rd ) H(u(τ ))dτ ⎦ = 0. (2.6)
k→∞
0

Let
d
ρ(t) = ||∇Q||L2 (Rd ) / ||∇u(t)||L2 (Rd ) , v(t, x) = ρ 2 u(t, ρx) and ρk = ρ(tk ), vk = v(tk , .).
The family (vk )k satisfies
||vk ||L2 (Rd ) ≤ exp[||a||L∞ T ] ||u0 ||L2 (Rd ) and ||∇vk ||L2 (Rd ) = ||∇Q||L2 (Rd ) .
By (2.3) and (2.6) we have
tk
E(vk ) = ρ2k E(u0 ) − ρ2k H(u(τ ))dτ → 0, (2.7)
0

which yields
4/d+2
||vk ||L4/d+2 → [(d + 2)/d] ||∇Q||2L2 (Rd ) . (2.8)

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1330 DARWICH

The family (vk )k satisfies the hypotheses of Theorem 2 with m4/d+2 = [(d + 2)/d] ||∇Q||2L2 (Rd ) and
M = ||∇Q||L2 (Rd ) , thus there exists a family (xk )k ⊂ Rd and a profile V ∈ H 1 (Rd ) with ||V ||L2 (Rd ) ≥
||Q||L2 (Rd ) , such that
d/2
ρk u(tk , ρk · +xk )  V ∈ H 1 weakly. (2.9)
Using (2.9), ∀A ≥ 0
 
lim inf ρdn |u(tn , ρn x + xn )| dx ≥
2
|V |2 dx,
n→+∞
B(0,A) B(0,A)

w(tn )
but limn→+∞ ρn = +∞ thus ρn A < w(tn ). This gives immediately
 
lim inf sup |u(tn , x)|2 dx ≥ |V |2 dx.
n→+∞ y∈Rd
|x−y|≤w(tn ) |x|≤A

This it is true for all A > 0 thus

 
lim inf sup |u(t, x)| dx ≥
2
Q2 dx. (2.10)
t→T y∈Rd
|x−y|≤w(t)

But for every t ∈ [0, T [,


y −→ |u(t, x)|2 dx
|x−y|≤w(t)

is continuous and goes to 0 at infinity, thus the sup is reached in a point x(t) ∈ Rd . This ends the proof
of Theorem 3.
Now we are ready to prove Theorem 1.
Proof of part 1 of Theorem 1. To prove the global existence we will proceed by contradiction.
Suppose that there exists an initial data u0 ∈ H 1 (Rd ) with ||u0 ||L2 ≤ ||Q||L2 such that the solution
of (1.1) blows up at finite time T . By Theorem 1 we have that
 
lim inf |u(t, x)| dx ≥ Q2 dx,
2
t→T
|x−x(t)|≤1

but if a(x) > 0, we obtain that


||u0 ||L2 > lim inf |u(t, x)|2 dx ≥ ||Q||2L2 ≥ ||u0 ||L2 ,
t→T
|x−x(t)|≤1

this gives a contradiction.

Proof of part 2 of Theorem 1. Let u0 ∈ H 1 (Rd ) with ||u0 ||L2 ≤ ||Q||L2 such that the corresponding
solution blows up at finite time T . By Theorem 1 we have that
 
lim inf |u(t, x)| dx ≥ Q2 dx,
2
t→T
|x−x(t)|≤1

and (2.5) in the hand we obtain that

 
||u0 ||2L2 exp[2||a||L∞ T ] ≥ lim inf |u(t, x)| dx ≥
2
Q2 dx.
t→T
|x−x(t)|≤1

This gives that ||u0 ||2L2 exp[2||a||L∞ T ] ≥ ||Q||2L2 , then T ≥ ||a||−1

∞ log (||Q||L2 /||u0 ||L2 ).

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 ON THE NONLINEAR SCHRÖDINGER EQUATION 1331

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