Uniqueness and non–uniqueness of prescribed mass NLS ground states on metric graphs

We consider the problem of uniqueness of ground states of prescribed mass for the Nonlinear Schrödinger Energy with power nonlinearity on noncompact metric graphs. We first establish that the Lagrange multiplier appearing in the NLS equation is constant on the set of ground states of mass μ, up to an at most countable set of masses. Then we apply this result to obtain uniqueness of ground states on two specific noncompact graphs. Finally we construct a graph that admits at least two ground states with the same mass having different Lagrange multipliers. Our proofs are based on careful variational arguments and rearrangement techniques, and hold both for the subcritical range p∈(2,6) and in the critical case p=6.