On the stability of solitary waves for classical scalar fields

We study the stability for the bound states of lowest action of certain nonlinear Klein-Gordon and Schroedinger equations by applying the Shatah-Strauss formalism. We extend the range of application of this formalism by using a recent existence theorem for minimum action solutions to a large class of equations including logarithmic Klein-Gordon equation and logarithmic Schroedinger equation and scalar fields with fractional non-linearities. Furthermore we discuss the relation between different stability criteria considered in the literature. (orig.)