Asymptotic decay for a one-dimensional nonlinear wave equation (Q1951730)

In this interesting work, the authors consider the asymptotic behaviour of finite energy solutions to the one-dimensional defocusing nonlinear wave equation \(-u_{tt}+ u_{x x}=|u|^{p-1}u\), where \(p > 1\). Standard energy methods guarantee global existence, but do not directly say much about the behaviour of \(u(t)\) as \(t\rightarrow \infty\). Note that in contrast to higher-dimensional settings, solutions to the linear equation \(-u_{tt}+ u_{x x}=0\) do not exhibit decay, thus apparently ruling out perturbative methods for understanding such solutions. Nevertheless, the authors show that solutions for the nonlinear equation behave differently from the linear equation, and more specifically that we have the average \(L^\infty\) decay, \[ \lim_{T\rightarrow +\infty} \sup_{t_0\in\mathbb R} \frac{1}{2T}\int_{t_0-T}^{t_0+T} \|u(t)\|_{L^\infty_x(\mathbb R)} dt =0, \] in sharp contrast to the linear case. An unusual ingredient in their arguments is the classical Rademacher differentiation theorem (or Lebesgue differentiation theorem), that asserts that Lipschitz functions are almost everywhere differentiable.