Rayleigh functional for nonlinear systems

We introduce Rayleigh functional for nonlinear systems. It is defined using the energy functional and the normalization properties of the variables of variation. The key property of the Rayleigh quotient for linear systems is preserved in our definition: the extremals of the Rayleigh functional coincide with the stationary solutions of the Euler-Lagrange equation. Moreover, the second variation of the Rayleigh functional defines stability of the solution. This gives rise to a powerful numerical optimization method in the search for the energy minimizers. It is shown that the well-known imaginary time relaxation is a special case of our method. To illustrate the method we find the stationary states of Bose-Einstein condensates in various geometries. Finally, we show that the Rayleigh functional also provides a simple way to derive analytical identities satisfied by the stationary solutions of the critical nonlinear equations. We also show that the functional used in Phys. Rev. A 66, 036612 (2002) is erroneous.