Existence of a positive solution to a nonlinear scalar field equation with zero mass at infinity

Abstract: We establish the existence of a positive solution to the problem $$-\Delta u+V(x)u=f(u),\qquad u\in D^{1,2}(\mathbb{R}^{N}),$$ for $N\geq3$, when the nonlinearity $f$ is subcritical at infinity and supercritical near the origin, and the potential $V$ vanishes at infinity. Our result includes situations in which the problem does not have a ground state. Then, under a suitable decay assumption on the potential, we show that the problem has a positive bound state.