Precise exponential decay for solutions of semilinear elliptic equations and its effect on the structure of the solution set for a real analytic nonlinearity

We are concerned with the properties of weak solutions of the stationary Schr\"odinger equation $-\Delta u + Vu = f(u)$, $u\in H^1(\mathbb{R}^N)\cap L^\infty(\mathbb{R}^N)$, where $V$ is H\"older continuous and $\inf V>0$. Assuming $f$ to be continuous and bounded near $0$ by a power function with exponent larger than $1$ we provide precise decay estimates at infinity for solutions in terms of Green's function of the Schr\"odinger operator. In some cases this improves known theorems on the decay of solutions. If $f$ is also real analytic on $(0,\infty)$ we obtain that the set of positive solutions is locally path connected. For a periodic potential $V$ this implies that the standard variational functional has discrete critical values in the low energy range and that a compact isolated set of positive solutions exists, under additional assumptions.