Time decay for the nonlinear beam equation (Q1601142)

The main purpose of this paper is to derive an analogue of Morawetz's radial identity for the case of the nonlinear beam equation \(\partial_t^2 u +\Delta^2 u + f(u) =0\). As a consequence of this identity, they prove that, for a nonlinear term with repelling sign, all solutions decay to zero in a certain norm as \(t\to\infty\). This paper is a report of work in progress and can be viewed as an initial step in the construction of a scattering theory for a nonlinear beam equation.