Nonlinear Bound States in a Schrödinger--Poisson System with External Potential

Abstract

We consider radial solutions to the Schrodinger--Poisson system in three dimensions with an external smooth potential with Coulomb-like decay. Such a system can be viewed as a model for the interaction of dark matter with a bright matter background in the nonrelativistic limit. We find that there are infinitely many critical points of the Hamiltonian, subject to fixed mass, and that these bifurcate from solutions to the associated linear problem at zero mass. As a result, each branch has a different topological character defined by the number of zeros of the radial states. We construct numerical approximations to these nonlinear states along the first several branches. The solution branches can be continued, numerically, to large mass values, where they become asymptotic, under a rescaling, to those of the Schrodinger--Poisson problem with no external potential. Our numerical computations indicate that the ground state is orbitally stable, while the excited states are linearly unstable for sufficiently la...