Optimal pinwheel partitions and pinwheel solutions to a nonlinear Schr\"odinger system

Abstract

We establish the existence of a solution to a nonlinear competitive Schr\"odinger system whose scalar potential tends to a positive constant at infinity with an appropriate rate. This solution has the property that all components are invariant under the action of a group of linear isometries and each component is obtained from the previous one by composing it with some fixed linear isometry. We call it a pinwheel solution. We describe the asymptotic behavior of the least energy pinwheel solutions when the competing parameter tends to zero and to minus infinity. In the latter case the components are segregated and give rise to an optimal pinwheel partition for the Schr\"odinger equation, that is, a partition formed by invariant sets that are mutually isometric through a fixed isometry.