The Cauchy problem for nonlinear wave equations in the Sobolev space of critical order (Q1576812)

The authors consider the following Cauchy problem \[ \partial^2_t u -\Delta_x u = f(u), \quad u(0,x)=\phi(x), \quad \partial_t u(0,x)=\psi(x), \] where \(\phi\) and \(\psi\) belong to \(H^{n/ 2}({\mathbb{R}}^n,{\mathbb{C}})\) and \(H^{{n/ 2}-1}({\mathbb{R}}^n,{\mathbb{C}})\) respectively and \(f\) is in \({\mathcal C}^1({\mathbb{C}}, {\mathbb{C}})\cap {\mathcal C}^{[n/2]}({\mathbb{C}}, {\mathbb{C}})\), with \(f(0)=0\). Under an hypothesis of exponential growth for \(f\) the authors prove that, if the norms of the initial data are sufficiently small, then the Cauchy problem has a unique local in time solution belonging to \(L^\infty(0,T; H^{n/ 2})\cap {\mathcal C}^0([0,T]; H^{n/ 2})\). The growth condition on \(f\) reads as follows: there exist \(C\), \(\lambda>0\) such that \(|f'(z)|\leq C|z|e^{\lambda|z|^2}\) and, if \(n\geq 4\), \(|f^{(k)}(z)|\leq C|z|e^{\lambda|z|^2}\) for all \(2\leq k\leq [n/2]\). If the rate of growth of \(f\) is lower, namely there exist \(C\), \(\lambda>0\) such that \(|f'(z)|\leq C|z|e^{\lambda|z|}\) and, if \(n\geq 4\), \(|f^{(k)}(z)|\leq C|z|e^{\lambda|z|}\) for all \(2\leq k\leq [n/2]\), then the local in time existence and uniqueness of the solution follows without the condition of smallness of the initial data. In the Appendix also the case of initial data in supercritical Sobolev spaces is considered.