Asymptotic stability of the sine-Gordon kink under odd perturbations (Q6143364)

The sine-Gordon equation \[ \partial_t^2\phi-\partial_x^2 \phi+\sin\phi=0 \] is one of the most important models in the theory of dispersive equations. It is known to be integrable, and many of its solutions are known explicitly, among them the kink \[ K(x)=4\arctan(e^{\,x}). \] The present paper deals with the asymptotic stability of the kink under odd perturbation which are initially small in a weighted Sobolev space. The main result is the \(L_x^\infty\) decay of \(u(t,x)=\phi(t,x)-K(x)\) at the rate \(t^{-1/2}\) for large \(t\). Moreover, a precise first order asymptotic profile is described in the main theorem. The techniques of this paper rely largely on the dispersive estimates for the one dimensional flat Klein-Gordon equation. One of the the novel elements is the reduction of the linearized operator around the kink to the flat Klein-Gordon operator via factorization. Another is the resonance property of the coefficient \(a(x)\) of the crucial quadratic term, namely \(\hat a(\pm\sqrt{3})=0\), which allows to introduce a suitable normal form of the nonlinear equation. The main result of this paper is remarkable in that the oddnes of the perturbations does not avoid the threshold resonance of the linearized Klein-Gordon equation around the kink.