On the Cauchy problem for a generalized Camassa-Holm equation (Q5920558)

The author of the paper is concerned with the generalization of the Camassa-Holm equation given by \[ u_t -u_{xxt} +[g(u)]_x =\gamma (2u_x u_{xx} +uu_{xxx}),\quad\geq 0,\;x\in \mathbb R, \tag{1} \] where \(g\in C^\infty (\mathbb R,\mathbb R)\), \(g(0)=0\) and \(\gamma \in \mathbb R/\{0\}\). For \(\gamma =1\), \(g(u)=\frac{3}{2}u^2+ku,\) where \(k\geq 0,\) the equation modelizes the unidirectional propagation of two-dimensional shallow water waves over a flat bottom, and \(u(t,x)\) denotes the free surface of the water at time \(t\geq 0\) in the spatial direction \(x\). In this case, equation (1) has a bi-Hamiltonian structure and is integrable. A smooth initial profile of the Camassa-Holm equation develops into a wave that either exists indefinitely in time or breaks in finite time. If \(g(u)=\frac{3}{2}u^2\), \(\gamma \in \mathbb {R},\) equation (1) modelizes the radial deformation waves with small amplitudine and finite length appearing in thin cylindrical compressible hyperelastic rods. Here, \(u(t,x)\) represents the radial stretch relative to a prestressed state. The paper is organized as follows. In Section 2 the author makes a detailed presentation of how Kato's theory for quasilinear evolution equations can be applied to equation (1). Local well-posedness in the sense of Hadamard is obtained in \(H^s(\mathbb R)\) for \(s>\frac{3}{2}\). Section 3 contains the derivation of the conservation laws \[ E(u)=\int_{\mathbb R} G(u)+ \frac{\gamma }{2}uu_x^2\,dx, \qquad F(u)=\int_{\mathbb R} u^2+u_x^2\,dx, \] where \(G(u)=\int_0^u g(v)\,dv\). The last section is devoted to establishing two results for the blow-up of solutions of the Cauchy problem associated to equation (1). They are concerned with both symmetric and non-symmetric initial data.