Sobolev Estimates for the Wave Operator on compact Manifolds (Q4033774)

The purpose of this paper is to extend some results in [(*) \textit{Z. Zhou}, J. Funct. Anal. 80, No. 2, 332-348 (1988; Zbl 0701.35104)]. First of all we prove some sharp \(L^ p\) estimates for the wave operator, \(\square= \partial_ t^ 2- \Delta\), on compact manifolds \(M^ n\) of dimension \(n\geq 2\). Here \(\Delta\) is a Laplace-Beltrami operator on \(M^ n\). Since \(\square\) is selfadjoint we can define a projection operator \(\Pi: L^ 2 (M^ n\times S^ 1)\to L^ 2 (M^ n\times S^ 1)\) which projects onto the eigenspaces of \((I+ \sqrt{-\Delta})^{-1} \square\) with eigenvalues of absolute value \(\geq 1\). Thus, one should think of \(\Pi\) as the projection onto frequencies outside of a tubular neighborhood of width one around the discrete light cone associated to \(\square\). The main estimate is \[ \|\Pi u\|_{L^{p'} (M^ n\times S^ 1)}\leq C\|\square u\|_{L^ p (M^ n\times S^ 1)}, \qquad {1\over p}- {1\over {p'}}= {2\over {n+1}}. \] Here \(p'\) denotes the dual exponent to \(p\), i.e. \(1/p+ 1/p' =1\). We extend some results in (*) concerning existence and regularity of solutions to the nonlinear equation \(\square u+ g(x,t,u)=0\) on \(S^ n\times S^ 1\). In particular, if \(g\) is smooth and behaves like \(| u|^{\sigma-2} u\) for large \(| u|\) with \(2<\sigma< \sigma_ c= 2(n+1)/ (n-1)\) then we see that when \(n=2\) or 4 all solutions must be \(C^ \infty\). Related partial results also hold for higher even dimensions \(n\).