Smooth solutions to a class of quasilinear wave equations (Q2493081)

The one-dimensional quasilinear hyperbolic equation \[ y_{tt}-(G(y_x))_x =0,\qquad x\in(0,1) \tag{1} \] with the boundary conditions \[ y(0,t)=y(1,t)=0 \tag{2} \] is considered, where \[ G(v)=1-(1+v)^{-\gamma},\qquad \gamma\in(1,2). \] Eq. (1) is a simplified version of the compressible Euler equations for a polytropic gas without external forces contained in a finite interval. Using time-periodic solutions of the corresponding linearized problem, the authors prove global existence of smooth small amplitude perturbations of these solutions for (1), (2). In the case of strictly concave or convex nonlinearity, when there are not time-periodic smooth solutions, they provide examples of exact solutions with singularities which lead to a shock after finite time and also give the life span of smooth solutions to (1), (2).