Blow-up for Strauss type wave equation with damping and potential (Q2215486)

In this paper, the authors study the blow-up phenomenon for the Cauchy problem of the wave equation with space-dependent critical damping and potential terms in \(\mathbb{R}^n\) (\(n\ge 1\)), \(\partial_t^2 u -\Delta u + Ar^{-1}\partial_t u +Br^{-2}u=|u|^p\), with \(B>-(n/2-1)^2\), \(0\leq A < n-1+2\rho\) and \(\rho=\sqrt{(n/2-1)^2+B}-(n/2-1)\). Heuristically, the damping coefficient \(A\) and the potential coefficient \(B\) will lead to certain spatial dimensional shift from \(n\) to \(n+A\) and \(n+\rho\) separately. For small, nontrivial, nonnegative data of size \(\varepsilon\), it is shown that the solutions blow up in finite time for \(1+1 / (n+\rho-1) < p< p_c=\max(p_S(n+A), 1+2/(n+\rho-1))\), if \(p_c>1+1/(n+\rho-1)\). Here \(p_S(k)\) is the positive root of \((k-1)p(p-1)=2(p+1)\) (when \(k>1\), otherwise \(p_S(k)=\infty\)), which is also known as the Strauss exponent. In addition, the expected upper bound of the lifespan is also obtained. In order to prove the blow-up result, the authors employ the test function method. The test functions are based on a family of special solutions, inside the light cone \(|x|< t+\lambda\), to the linear dual problem \(\partial_t^2\Psi - Ar^{-1}\partial_t \Psi -\Delta \Psi +Br^{-2}\Psi=0\), which have the form \(\Psi_{\beta}(t,x)=r^\rho (t+r+\lambda)^{-\beta}\phi(\frac{2r}{t+r+\lambda})\), (\(\beta\in\mathbb{R}\), \(\lambda\geq 0\)), for hypergeometric functions \(\phi\) depending on \(n\), \(A\), \(B\).