On existence and phase separation of solitary waves for nonlinear Schrödinger systems modelling simultaneous cooperation and competition

Abstract: We study the existence of positive bound states for the nonlinear elliptic system [ \begin{cases} - \Delta u_i + \lambda_i u_i = \sum_{j=1}^d \beta_{ij} u_j^2 u_i & \text{in $\Omega$} \ u_1 =\cdots = u_d=0 & \text{on $\partial \Omega$}, \end{cases} ] where $d \ge 2$, $\beta_{ij}= \beta_{ji}$, $\beta_{ii},\lambda_i >0$, and $\Omega$ is either a bounded domain of $\mathbb{R}^N$, or $\Omega=\mathbb{R}^N$, with $N \le 3$. In light of its applicability in several physical contexts, the problem has been intensively studied in recent years, and several results concerning existence, multiplicity and qualitative properties of the solutions are available if either $\beta_{ij}\le 0$ for every $i \neq j$, or $\beta_{ij}>0$ for every $i \neq j$ and some additional assumptions are satisfied. On the other hand, only very partial results are known in the case of \emph{simultaneous cooperation and competition}, that is, when there exist two pairs $(i_1,j_1)$ and $(i_2,j_2)$ such that $i_1 \neq j_1$, $i_2 \neq j_2$, $\beta_{i_1 j_1}>0$ and $\beta_{i_2,j_2}<0$. In this setting, we provide sufficient conditions on the coupling parameters $\beta_{ij}$ in order to have a positive solution. Our first main results establishes the existence of solutions with at least $m$ positive components for every $m \le d$. Any such solution is a minimizer of the energy functional $J$ restricted on a \emph{Nehari-type manifold} $\mathcal{N}$. By means of level estimates on the constrained second differential of $J$ on $\mathcal{N}$, we show that, under some additional assumptions, any such minimizer has all nontrivial components. In order to prove this second result, we analyse the phase separation phenomena which involve solutions of the system in a \emph{not completely competitive} framework.