Blow-up of solutions to critical semilinear wave equations with variable coefficients (Q1736165)

This paper deals with the Cauchy problem for equation $u_{tt}-Lu=|u|^p$, where the space variables are in $\mathbb{R}^n$, $n\geq 2$, $t>0$, $p$ is the positive root of $2+(n+1)p-(n-1)p^2=0$, and the Cauchy data have the form $(\varepsilon u_0, \varepsilon u_1)$, where $u_0$ and $u_1$ are smooth and compactly supported. The elliptic operator $L$, with smooth coefficients, is in divergence form, and its coefficients and their derivatives tend to those of the Laplacian exponentially fast. The main result states that there is a positive $\varepsilon_0$ such that the solution must blow up at some time $T_\varepsilon\leq\exp(K\varepsilon^{-p/(p-1)})$ if $0<\varepsilon\leq\varepsilon_0$, where $K$ depends on $n$, $p$, $u_0$ and $u_1$. The method is an adaptation, to variable coefficients, of the approach in \textit{Y. Zhou} [Chin. Ann. Math., Ser. B 28, No. 2, 205--212 (2007; Zbl 1145.35439)] and \textit{Y. Zhou} and \textit{W. Han} [Commun. Partial Differ. Equations 39, No. 3, 439--451 (2014; Zbl 1297.35141)].