The blowup mechanism of small data solutions for the quasilinear wave equations in three space dimensions (Q5936961)

This paper generalizes recent results of Alinhac from two to three space dimensions. The equation considered here has the form \(u_{tt}-\Delta u + p(\nabla u) D^2u=0\), where \(p(0)=0\). The main result is the determination of the limit of \(\varepsilon \ln T_\varepsilon\) as \(\varepsilon\to 0\), where \(T_\varepsilon\) is the first time when a singularity develops, from Cauchy data of the form \((\varepsilon u_0(x),\varepsilon u_1(x))\). The main difficulty is due to the fact that \(T_\varepsilon\) grows faster than any power. Most of the (very technical) details are written out. An application to the isentropic compressible Euler equations with near-constant irrotational data is included.