Decay properties of solutions to the Cauchy problem for the damped wave equation with absorption (Q819637)

The authors consider the global solvability and the decay estimate to the following Cauchy problem for the damped wave equation with absorption: \[ \begin{aligned} & \partial_t^2u-\Delta u+\partial_tu+|u|^{p-1}u=0 \quad\text{for}\quad (t,x)\in (0,\infty)\times\mathbb{R}^N,\\ & u(0,x)=u_0 (x),\;\partial_tu(0,x)=u_1(x),\quad\text{for }x\in\mathbb{R}^N,\tag{1}\end{aligned} \] where \(1<p<1+2/N\), from the point of view to expect the decay rates should be related to the Cauchy problem for the semilinear heat equation \[ \begin{aligned} & \partial_tu-\Delta u+|u|^{p-1}u=0\text{ for }(t,x)\in (0,\infty)\times\mathbb{R}^N,\\ & u(0,x)=u_0(x),\quad\partial_tu(0,x)=u_1 (x),\quad\text{for }x\in\mathbb{R}^N.\tag{2}\end{aligned} \] The main theorem of this paper is motivated from the works by \textit{M. Escobedo} and \textit{O. Kavian} [Houston J. Math. 14, No, 1, 39--50 (1988; Zbl 0666.35046)], and \textit{M. Escobedo, O. Kavian} and \textit{H. Matano} [Comm. Partial Differential Equations 20, No. 7--8, 1427--1452 (1995; Zbl 0838.35015)], which consider some decay estimates for the difference between the solution to (2) and some self-similar solutions under some suitable assumptions for the decay of the initial data. Precisely, the main theorem asserts the followings: Assume that \(1<p<1+2/(N-1)(N\geq 3)\), \(1<p<\infty\) \((N=1,2)\) \(asn\) that \((u_0, u_1)\) satisfies \[ I_0^2:=\int_{\mathbb{R}^N}e^{\beta|x|^2}(|\nabla u_0(x)|^2+|u_1(x) |^2+u_0(x)^2)dx<\infty\quad\text{for some }\beta >0, \] Then the solution \(u(t,x) \in C(|0,T);H^1(\mathbb{R}^N))\cap C^1([0, T);L^2(\mathbb{R}^N))\) to (1) uniquely exists, which satisfies for \(t\geq 0\), \[ \bigl\|u(t,\cdot)\bigr\|_{L^2}\leq CI_0(1+t)^{-\frac{1}{p-1}+\frac N4},\quad \bigl\|u(t,\cdot)\bigr\|_{L^{p+1}}\leq CI_0(1+t)^{-\frac{1} {p-1}+\frac{N}{2(p+1)}}, \] \[ \bigl\|\nabla u(t,\cdot)\bigr\|_{L^2}+ \bigl\|\partial_tu(t,\cdot)\bigr\|_{L^2}\leq CI_0(1+t)^{-\frac{1}{p-1}-\frac 12+\frac N4} \] for some positive constant \(C\) provided that \(1<p \leq 1+4/N\).