A Solution of Problem 2.5 by Brezis on the Planar Ginzburg--Landau Equation

Abstract

Brezis, Merle, and Riviére [Arch. Rational Mech. Anal. 1994] proved that, if a smooth solution $u:\mathbb{R}^2\to\mathbb{C}$ of the planar entire Ginzburg--Landau equation $$ -Δu = u(1-|u|^2)\quad \text{in}\quad \mathbb{R}^2 $$ satisfies the finite potential energy estimate that $$ \int_{\mathbb{R}^2}\left[1-|u(x)|^2\right]^2\,dx < \infty, $$ then it has the asymptotic property that $$ |u(x)|\to 1\quad \text{as}\quad |x|\to\infty. $$ The converse problem whether the asymptotic property implies the finite potential energy estimate was originally posed in their work and later formulated by Brezis as \emph{Open Problem 2.5} in [Atti Accad. Naz. Lincei Rend. Lincei Mat. Appl. 2023]. In this article, we give an affirmative answer to this question. Our proof relies on the Kelvin inversion, a Morrey-type energy decay for the translation Jacobi system, the $L^4$-integrability of the phase form, and a linearised amplitude equation; all these tools together imply the $L^2$-integrability of the function $1-|u|$ on an exterior domain, without any a priori integrability assumption.