Global well-posedness, scattering and blow-up for the energy-critical, focusing, non-linear Schrodinger equation in the radial case

Abstract

We prove, for the energy critical, focusing NLS, that for data whose energy is smaller than that of the standing wave, and whose homogeneous Sobolev norm H^1 is smaller than that of the standing wave and which is radial, we have global well-posedness and scattering in dimensions 3, 4 and 5. This is sharp since if the data is in the inhomogeneous Sobolev space H^1, of energy smaller than the standing wave but of larger homogeneous H^1 norm, we have blow-up in finite time. The result follows from a general method that we introduce into this type of critical problem. By concentration-compactness we produce a critical element, which modulo the symmetries of the equation is compact, has minimal energy among those which fail to have the conclusion of our theorem. In addition, we show that the dilation parameter in the symmetry, for this solution, can be taken strictly positive.We then establish a rigidity theorem that shows that no such compact, modulo symmetries, object can exist. It is only at this step that we use the radial hypothesis.The same analysis, in a simplified form, applies also to the defocusing case, giving a new proof of results of Bourgain and Tao.