Scattering theory for a particle coupled to a scalar field. (Q1433928)

The authors establish a soliton-like asymptotics for finite energy solutions to a classical particle coupled to a scalar wave field. The equations read as \[ \begin{gathered} {\partial\varphi\over\partial t}= \pi,\quad {\partial\pi\over\partial t}= \Delta\varphi- \rho(x- q),\quad {dq\over dt}= p/(1+ p^2)^{1/2},\\ {dp\over dt}=-\nabla V(q)+ \int d^3x\cdot \varphi\nabla\rho(x- q),\end{gathered} \] see \textit{A. Komech}, \textit{M. Kunze} and \textit{H. Spohn} [Commun. Math. Phys. 203, 1--19 (1999; Zbl 0947.70010) and Commun. Partial Differ. Equations 22, 307--335 (1997; Zbl 0878.35094)]. Here, \(\varphi= \varphi(x,t)\) and \(\pi= \pi(x,t)\) belong to appropriate Sobolev spaces, \(q= q(t)\in\mathbb{R}^3\) denotes the position of the charge, \(\rho= \rho(t)\) represents the charge distribution with compact support and such that \(\|\rho\|_{L^2}\ll 1\), \(V= V(x)\) is the perturbing potential with compact support. The resulting asymptotics reads as \[ \begin{gathered} \Biggl|{dq\over dt}- V_{\pm}\Biggr|< C(1+| t|)^{-\sigma},\\ (\varphi(x,t),\pi(x,t))\sim \varphi_{V_\pm}(x- q(t)),\quad \pi_{V_\pm}(x- q(t)),\end{gathered} \] where \(t\to\pm\infty\), \(\sigma> 0\), and \(\varphi_V\), \(\pi_V\) are Coulombic travelling waves (solutions of the unperturbed equation with \(V= 0\) identically) and concerns all solutions of the class \(S\) defined by the property \(| q(t)|\to \infty\) as \(t\to\pm\infty\). Simple sufficient conditions on initial data for solutions to belong to \(S\) are presented. The proofs use a nonautonomous integral inequality method.