Threshold solutions for the nonlinear Schrödinger equation

Abstract: We study the focusing NLS equation in $\mathbb{R}^N$ in the mass-supercritical and energy-subcritical (or intercritical) regime, with $H^1$ data at the mass-energy threshold $ \mathcal{ME}(u_0)=\mathcal{ME}(Q)$, where $Q$ is the ground state. Previously, Duyckaerts-Merle studied the behavior of threshold solutions in the $H^1$-critical case, in dimensions $N = 3, 4, 5$, later generalized by Li-Zhang for higher dimensions. In the intercritical case, Duyckaerts-Roudenko studied the threshold problem for the 3d cubic NLS equation. In this paper, we generalize the results of Duyckaerts-Roudenko for any dimension and any power of the nonlinearity for the entire intecritical range. We show the existence of special solutions, $Q^\pm$, besides the standing wave $e^{it}Q$, which exponentially approach the standing wave in the positive time direction, but differ in its behavior for negative time. We classify all solutions at the threshold level, showing either blow-up occurs in finite (positive and negative) time, or scattering in both time directions, or the solution is equal to one of the three special solutions above, up to symmetries. Our proof extends to the $H^1$-critical case, thus, giving a different and more unified approach than the Li-Zhang result. These results are obtained by studying the linearized equation around the standing wave and some tailored approximate solutions to the NLS equation. We establish important decay properties of functions associated to the spectrum of the linearized Schr\"odinger operator, which, in combination with modulational stability and coercivity for the linearized operator on special subspaces, allows us to use a fixed-point argument to show the existence of special solutions. Finally, we prove the uniqueness by studying exponentially decaying solutions to a sequence of linearized equations.