Asymptotic stability of ground states in 3D nonlinear Schrödinger equation including subcritical cases

We consider a class of nonlinear Schrödinger equation in three space dimensions with an attractive potential. The nonlinearity is local but rather general encompassing for the first time both subcritical and supercritical (in L2) nonlinearities. We study the asymptotic stability of the nonlinear bound states, i.e. periodic in time localized in space solutions. Our result shows that all solutions with small initial data, converge to a nonlinear bound state. Therefore, the nonlinear bound states are asymptotically stable. The proof hinges on dispersive estimates that we obtain for the time dependent, Hamiltonian, linearized dynamics around a careful chosen one parameter family of bound states that “shadows” the nonlinear evolution of the system. Due to the generality of the methods we develop we expect them to extend to the case of perturbations of large bound states and to other nonlinear dispersive wave type equations. © 2009 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.