Another look at quasilinear Schr\"odinger equations with prescribed mass via dual method

Abstract

In this paper, we aim to study the existence of ground state normalized solutions for the following quasilinear Schr\"{o}dinger equation $-\Delta u-\Delta(u^2)u=h(u)+\lambda u,\,\, x\in\R^N$, under the mass constraint $\int_{\R^N}|u|^2\text{d}x=a,$ where $N\geq2$, $a>0$ is a given mass, $\lambda$ is a Lagrange multiplier and $h$ is a nonlinear reaction term with some suitable conditions. By employing a suitable transformation $u=f(v)$, we reformulate the original problem into the equivalent form $-\Delta v =h(f(v))f'(v)+\lambda f(v)f'(v),\,\, x\in\R^N,$ with prescribed mass $ \int_{\R^N}|f(v)|^2\text{d}x=a. $ To address the challenge posed by the $L^2$-norm $\|f(v)\|^2_2$ not necessarily equaling $a$, we introduce a novel stretching mapping: $ v_t(x):=f^{-1}(t^{N/2}f(v(tx))). $ This construction, combined with a dual method and detailed analytical techniques, enables us to establish the following existence results: (1)Existence of solutions via constrained minimization using dual methods; (2) Existence of ground state normalized solutions under general $L^2$-supercritical growth conditions, along with nonexistence results, analyzed via dual methods; (3)Existence of normalized solutions under critical growth conditions, treated via dual methods. Additionally, we analyze the asymptotic behavior of the ground state energy obtained in {\bf(P2)}. Our results extend and refine those of Colin-Jeanjean-Squassina [Nonlinearity 20: 1353-1385, 2010], of Jeanjean-Luo-Wang [J. Differ. Equ. 259: 3894-3928, 2015], of Li-Zou [Pacific J. Math. 322: 99-138, 2023], of Zhang-Li-Wang [Topol. Math. Nonl. Anal. 61: 465-489, 2023] and so on. We believe that the methodology developed here can be adapted to study related problems concerning the existence of normalized solutions for quasilinear Schr\"{o}dinger equations via the dual method.