Minimax solutions for FitzHugh-Nagumo systems with critical exponential growth

Abstract

We study a class of FitzHugh-Nagumo type systems with critical exponential growth in a smooth bounded domain of $\mathbb{R}^{2}$. The classical reduction method turns the strongly indefinite system into a scalar nonlocal problem whose quadratic part induces a norm equivalent to, but different from the standard Sobolev norm, so that the Trudinger-Moser threshold must be handled in this framework. We prove the existence of a ground state solution via a mountain pass argument combined with a Nehari level comparison. We also prove the existence, without imposing the monotonicity condition required in the ground state argument, of a nontrivial solution obtained through a saddle-point linking argument based on the spectral decomposition of $\operatorname{T}=-Δ+B$.