On global existence for semilinear wave equations with space-dependent critical damping (Q6046473)

Recently, there have been many works on the problem of the influence of space-dependent damping and potential terms on the global existence vs blow-up for solutions to power-type semilinear wave equations \(\partial_t^2 u -\Delta u +D(x) \partial_t u +V(x) u= |u|^p\) with small initial data, with \(x\in\mathbb{R}^N\). Let \(p_S(n)\) be the positive root of \((n-1)p(p-1)=2(p+1)\), in the case of space-dependent critical damping, i.e., \(V=0\) and \(D=V_0/|x|\), it is well-believed that the critical power to the problem is given by \(p_c=\max(p_S(N+V_0), 1+2/(N-1))\). The blow up theory for \(p<p_c\) has been well-established, see, e.g., [\textit{N.-A. Lai} et al., Calc. Var. Partial Differ. Equ. 62, No. 2, Paper No. 44, 32 p. (2023; Zbl 1506.35021)] and references therein. On the other hand, the global theory for \(p>p_c\) remains open. In this paper, the author considers the corresponding initial-boundary value problem and establishes a global result for some \(p>p_c\). More precisely, let \(\Omega\subset \mathbb{R}^N\) be an exterior domain with \(N\ge 3\) and \(0\notin \Omega\), consider the global solvability for the initial boundary value problem of semilinear wave equations with space-dependent critical damping: \(\partial_t^2 u -\Delta u +\frac{V_0}{|x|} \partial_t u = |u|^p\), equipped with homogeneous Dirichlet boundary condition, existence of global-in-time weak solutions is obtained, provided that \(V_0>N-2\) and \(1+4/(N-2+\min(N, V_0))<p<1+2/(N-2)\). In particular, when \(V_0\ge N\), the global result is proved to be sharp in general, in the sense that there is no global result for \(p\le 1+4/(N-2+\min(N, V_0))=1+2/(N-1)=p_c\).