On potential wells and applications to semilinear hyperbolic equations and parabolic equations (Q2490768)

The authors consider both parabolic and hyperbolic partial differential equations. Given the initial boundary value problem for semilinear hyperbolic equations of the form \[ \begin{aligned} u_{tt}-\triangle u=f(u), \quad & x\in \Omega , \;t>0, \\ u(x,0)=u_0(x), \;u_t(x,0)=u_1(x), \quad & x\in \Omega,\\ u(x,t)=0, \quad &x\in \partial\Omega , \;\;t\geq 0 \end{aligned} \] and semilinear hyperbolic equations of the form, \[ \begin{aligned} u_{t}-\triangle u=f(u), \quad & x\in \Omega , \;t>0, \\ u(x,0)=u_0(x), \quad & x\in \Omega ,\\ u(x,t)=0, \quad & x\in \partial\Omega , \;t\geq 0. \end{aligned} \] Here \(\Omega \) is a bounded domain in \(\text{ I\hskip-2pt R}^n\). The family of potential wells \(W\) is generalized by \[ W=\{u\in H_0^1(\Omega )| \mid (u)>0, J(u)<d\}\cup \{0\}, \] where \(J(u)=(1/2)\| \nabla u\| ^2-\int_{\Omega}F(u)\,dx\), \(F(u)=\int_{0}^{u}f(s)\,ds\), \(I(u)=\| \nabla u\| ^2-\int_{\Omega}uf(u)\,dx\), \(d=\inf{J(u)}\), \(u\in H_0^1(\Omega )\), \(\| \nabla u\| \neq 0\) and \(I(u)=0\). They use and generalize some results of \textit{L.~E. Payne} and \textit{D. H. Sattinger} [Isr. J. Math. 22 (1975), 273--303 (1976; Zbl 0317.35059)]. A threshold result of global existence and nonexistence of solutions is obtained. The vacuum isolating of the solutions is discussed as well. The global existence of the solutions is proved for the critical initial conditions \(I(u_0)\geq 0\), \(E(0)=d\) (the energy in the initial time) or \(I(u_0)\geq 0\), \(J(u_0)= d\).