Blow-up analysis and a priori bounds for NLS equations on metric graphs

Abstract

We consider, on a connected metric graph $\mathcal{G}$, a family of nonlinear Schr\"odinger equations $$ -u'' + W_n(x) u + \lambda_n u = \rho_n(x)|u|^{p-2}u, \quad n \in \mathbb{N}. \qquad (*) $$ We assume that $p > 2$, $(W_n)$, $(\rho_n) \subseteq L^{\infty}(\mathcal{G})$ with $\rho_n \geq 0$, $|W_n|_{L^\infty(\mathcal{G})}$ and $|\rho_n|_{L^\infty(\mathcal{G})}$ are bounded and $\lambda_n \to +\infty$. Given $n \in \mathbb{N}$, we call "solution" a function $u_n \in H^1(\mathcal{G})$ which satisfies (*) for that $n\in \mathbb{N}$ together with the Kirchhoff conditions at the vertices. Focusing on the limiting behavior of sequences $(u_n) \subseteq H^1(\mathcal{G})$ of solutions as $\lambda_n \to + \infty$ and assuming that the Morse index $m(u_n)$ of $u_n$ is uniformly bounded, we establish, the existence of a finite subset of blow-up points away from which, up to a subsequence, $|u_n|$ has a global exponential decay. These points are generally a strict subset of the blow-up points, and their number is estimated by the bound on the Morse index of $(u_n)$. It is the first time that this global exponential decay property is established on graphs even if one consider only signed solutions. In the last part of the paper we derive various results of a priori bounds on the solutions in $L^\infty$ and $L^2$. Our blow-up analysis, combined with ODE arguments allows, for frequently considered classes of graphs, to obtain a fairly complete picture of the relationships between the number of nodal regions, Morse index, $L^\infty$ and $L^2$ norms of solutions.