Normalized solutions to Kirchhoff equation with the Sobolev critical exponent in high dimensional spaces

Abstract

The following well-known Kirchhoff equation with the Sobolev critical exponent has been extensively studied, \begin{equation*} -\Big(a+b\int_{\mathbb R^N} | \nabla u|^2dx\Big) \Delta u+\lambda u=\mu |u|^{q-2}u+|u|^{2^*-2}u \ \ {\rm in}\ \ \mathbb{R}^N, \ \ N\geq4, \end{equation*} having prescribed mass $\int_{\mathbb R^N}|u|^2dx=c$, where $a$, $c$ are two positive constants, $b,\mu$ are two parameters, $\lambda$ appears as a real Lagrange multiplier and $2<q<2^*$, $2^*$ is the Sobolev critical exponent. Firstly, for the special case $\mu=0$ and $N\geq4$, the above equation reduces to a pure critical Kirchhoff equation, we obtain a complete conclusion including the existence, nonexistence and multiplicity of the normalized solutions by the variational methods. Secondly, when $\mu>0$, $N\geq5$ and $2<q<2+\frac{4}{N}$, we investigate the existence of the positive normalize solution under suitable assumptions on parameter $b$ and mass $c$. To the best of our knowledge, it is the first time to consider the above case, which is a more complicated case not only the difficulties on checking the Palais-Smale condition, but also the constraint functional requesting the intricate concave-convex structure. Lastly, when $\mu>0$ and $N=4$, we obtain a local minimizer solution and a mountain pass solution under explicit conditions on $b$ and $c$. It is worth noting that the second solution is obtained by introducing a new functional to establish a threshold for the mountain pass level, which is the key step for the fulfillment of the Palais-Smale condition. This paper provides a refinement and extension of the results of the normalized solutions for Kirchhoff type problem in high-dimensional spaces.