Real solutions to the nonlinear Helmholtz equation with local nonlinearity

In this paper, we study real solutions of the nonlinear Helmholtz equation $$- \Delta u - k^2 u = f(x,u),\qquad x\in \R^N$$ satisfying the asymptotic conditions $$u(x)=O(|x|^{\frac{1-N}{2}}) \quad \text{and} \quad \frac{\partial^2 u}{\partial r^2}(x)+k^2 u(x)) =o(|x|^{\frac{1-N}{2}}) \qquad \text{as $r=|x| \to \infty$.}$$ We develop the variational framework to prove the existence of nontrivial solutions for compactly supported nonlinearities without any symmetry assumptions. In addition, we consider the radial case in which, for a larger class of nonlinearities, infinitely many solutions are shown to exist. Our results give rise to the existence of standing wave solutions of corresponding nonlinear Klein-Gordon equations with arbitrarily large frequency.