Stability and ground-state transition conjecture for solitary waves

Let dd be the spatial dimension, let α\alpha be the nonlinearity exponent, and let φω\varphi_\omega be the solitary-wave profile associated with frequency ω(0,ω)\omega\in(0,\omega^*). Write M(ω)M(\omega) for its mass and E\mathcal{E} for the energy. A solitary wave is orbitally stable when its orbit under the symmetries of the evolution remains close to the initial orbit for all later times.

Stability conjecture. Let 1d61\leq d\leq 6. For α2/d\alpha\leq 2/d, the solution φω\varphi_\omega minimizes E\mathcal{E} at mass M=M(ω)M=M(\omega) for all ω(0,ω)\omega\in(0,\omega^*) and is orbitally stable. For α>2/d\alpha>2/d, there exists an ωc(0,ω)\omega_\mathrm{c}\in(0,\omega^*) such that, for ωωc\omega\geq\omega_\mathrm{c}, φω\varphi_\omega is a normalized ground state and orbitally stable, whereas for ω<ωc\omega<\omega_\mathrm{c} it is not a minimizer of E\mathcal{E} at fixed mass M=M(ω)M=M(\omega) and is unstable.

This conjecture predicts the stability regions suggested by the monotonicity of the mass-frequency function and the numerical experiments. It remains open in the stated generality, since the paper presents the conclusion as an expectation rather than an established theorem.

Sources & referencesView supporting material

Primary source

Meriem Bahhi, Jonas Lampart, Christian Klein and Simona Rota Nodari, “A numerical study of stability for solitary waves of a quasi-linear Schrödinger equation”, arXiv:2509.02236 (2025).

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