Existence and blow up of small-amplitude nonlinear waves with a sign-changing potential (Q2576960)

The author considers the Cauchy problem for the nonlinear wave equation \((\partial^2_t- \Delta)u+ V(x)u= F(u)\) with potential \(V\) if \(t> 0\), \(x\in\mathbb{R}^n\), where \(F(u)\) behaves like \(|u|^p\) for some \(p> 1\). He proves the following results: \(\bullet\) If \(n\geq 4\) and \(p_n< p< 1+2[{n-2\over 2}]^{-1}\), where \(p_n\) is the positive root of \((n-1)p^2_n= (n+ 1)p_n+ 2\) and \([a]\) denotes the largest integer \(\leq a\), he obtains global existence for the solution if the initial data and the potential are radial and small in an appropriable sense. If the smallness condition of the initial data is relaxed somewhat, the author finds a lower bound for the lifespan. \(\bullet\) Under less favorable assumptions on either the initial datda or the potential, the author shows that blow-up may occur for arbitrarily small data.