NLS

FIN

1
Contents

1 Stability of Solitary Waves 3

2 Linear Stability 4

2
1 Stability of Solitary Waves
In chapter 6, we saw that the NLS
2σ
iψz (z, x) + ∆ψ + |ψ| ψ = 0, ψ(0, x) = ψ0 (x) ∈ H 1

admits a solitary-wave solution ψωsolitary = eiωz Rω (x), where Rω is the nontrivial solution of
2σ
∆Rω (x) − ωRω + |Rω | Rω = 0,
1 1
with Rω ∈ H 1 . In addition, Rω (x) = ω 2σ R(ω 2 x), where R := Rω=1 is a solution of
2σ
∆R(x) − R + |R| R = 0, R ∈ H 1 . (1)

The equation (1), has a unique ground-state solution, denoted by R(0) , which is radical, positive, and mono-
tonically decreasing. When d ≥ 2, 1 also admits a countable number of non-monotone radical solutions
{R(n) }n≥1 , which change their sign n times in 0 < r < ∞.
Lemma 1.1. If stability means that the perturbed solution remains close to the unperturbed solitary wave
for 0 ≤ z < ∞, then all solitary waves of the NLS are unstable.
Proof. Let ψωsolitary = eiωz Rω (x) and ψωsolitary
e = eieωz Rωe (x) be two solitary waves. Let 0 < ϵ ≪ 1 and ω
e
sufficiently close to ω. Then

ψωsolitary (z = 0) − ψωsolitary (z = 0) = ∥Rωe − Rω ∥H 1 < ϵ

H1
e

1 1
as Rω (x) = ω 2σ R(ω 2 x). However,

ψωsolitary − ψωsolitary = eieωz (Rωe − Rω ) + (eieωz − eiωz )Rω ≥ ei(eω−ω)z − 1 ∥Rω ∥H 1 − ϵ.

H1 H1
e

solitary solitary c·x

Similarly, let ψω,GL be the solution with the initial condition ψω,GL (z = 0) = ei 2 , where c ∈ Rd .
For any 0 < ϵ ≪ 1, if |c| is sufficiently small,

solitary
ψω,GL (z = 0) − ψωsolitary (z = 0) < ϵ.
H1

By Galilean invariance,
c·x |c|2 z c·x |c|2 z
solitary 2 −i 4 2 −i 4
ψω,GL (z, x) = ψωsolitary (z, x − zc)ei = Rω (x − zc)eiωz+i .

solitary
Since ψωsolitary and ψω,GL are localized around x = 0 and x = zc, respectively, the overlap between them
becomes negligible as z → ∞. Therefore,
solitary solitary
ψω,GL − ψωsolitary ∼ ψω,GL + ψωsolitary H1
H1

as z → ∞.
Definition 1.2. Let ψωsolitary = eiωz Rω (x) be a solitary wave of NLS. We say that ψωsolitary is orbitally
stable, if for any ϵ > 0, there exists δ > 0, such that if ψ0 − ψωsolitary (z = 0) H 1 < δ and ψ is the solution
of NLS with the initial condition ψ0 , then

inf ψ(z, x) − eiζ(z) Rω (x − x0 (z)) < ϵ, 0 ≤ z < ∞.

ζ(z)∈R,x0 (z)∈Rd H1

3
2 Linear Stability
Before we consider orbital stability, we begin with the simpler problem of linear stability. To simplify the
presentation, we consider the case where Rω is real. We perturb the initial condition as
ψ0 (x) = Rω (x) + ϵh0 (x), ϵ ≪ 1.
Initially the perturbed solution remains close to the solitary wave. Therefore, it can be written as
ψ(z, x) = (Rω (x) + ϵh(z, x, ω) + O(ϵ2 ))eiωz ,
where h(0, x) = h0 (x). To balance the O(ϵ), we first note that
2 2
|Rω + ϵh| = |Rω | + ϵRω (h∗ + h) + O(ϵ2 ).
Therefore,
2σ 2σ 2(σ−1)
|ψ| = |Rω | + ϵRω (h∗ + h)σ |Rω | + O(ϵ2 )
and
2σ 2σ 2(σ−1) 2σ 2σ
|ψ| ψ = (|Rω | +ϵRω (h∗ +h)σ |Rω | )(Rω +ϵh)+O(ϵ2 ) = |Rω | Rω +ϵ |Rω | ((1+σ)h+σh∗ )+O(ϵ2 ).
Hence, the balance of O(ϵ) terms gives the linearized equation for h
2σ 2σ
ihz (z, x, ω) + L0,ω h + σ |Rω | h∗ = 0, L0,ω := ∆ − ω + (1 + σ) |Rω | (2)
Then we now show that the solution of (2) can be constructed from solutions of the eigenvalue problem
    
0 L+,ω v v
=Ω , (3)
−L−,ω 0 u u
2σ 2σ
where Ω ∈ C is an eigenvalue and L+,ω := ∆ − ω + (1 + 2σ) |Rω | , L−,ω := ∆ − ω + |Rω | .
  
v
Lemma 2.1. Let Ω, be an eigenpair of (3).
u
1. If Ω ∈ R, then h(z, x) = (u(x) + iv(x))eΩz solves (2), where u, v are real.
2. If Im(Ω) ̸= 0, then
u(x) + iv(x) Ωz u∗ (x) + iv(x) Ω∗ z
h(z, x) = e + e
2 2
solves (2), where u and v are complex.
Proof.
1. We substitute h(z, x) = (u(x) + iv(x))eΩz into (2). Because Ω is real, the equations for the real an
imaginary parts are
L+,ω u = Ωv, L−,ω v = −Ωu,
which is exactly 3.
∗
2. When Im(Ω) ̸= 0, we look for a solution of the form h = f (x)eΩz + g ∗ (x)eΩ z . Substitution in (2) gives
2σ ∗ 2σ
eΩz (iΩf + L0,ω f + σ |Rω | g) + eΩ z (iΩ∗ g ∗ + L0,ω g ∗ + σ |Rω | f ∗ ) = 0.
Since Ω ̸= Ω∗ and f, g, Rω are independent of z, we get that
2σ 2σ
iΩf + L0,ω f + σ |Rω | g = 0 = iΩ∗ g ∗ + L0,ω g ∗ + σ |Rω | f ∗.
By taking conjugate, we get
2σ 2σ
L0,ω f + σ |Rω | g = −iΩf, L0,ω g + σ |Rω | f = iΩg.
Therefore,
2σ
L0,ω (f + g) + σ |Rω | (f + g) = L+,ω (f + g) = −iΩ(f − g)
and
2σ
L0,ω (f − g) − σ |Rω | (f − g) = L−,ω (f − g) = iΩ(f + g).
Let f + g = u and f − g = iv. Then u and v satisfies 3.