Asymptotically self-similar solutions of the damped wave equation (Q992825)

Consider the damped wave equation \[ \varepsilon u_{\tau\tau}+u_{\tau}=(a(\xi)u_\xi)_{\xi}-|u|^{p-1}u, \quad (\xi,\tau)\in \mathbb R\times \mathbb R_+, \tag{1} \] with \(\varepsilon>0\), \(a(\xi)>0\), \(a(\xi)\rightarrow 1\) as \(|\xi|\rightarrow \infty\) and \(1<p<3\). The author studied the asymptotically self-similar solutions of (1). When \(a(\xi)\equiv 1\) and \(\varepsilon=0\), the equation reduces to the semilinear parabolic equation \[ u_\tau=u_{\xi\xi}-|u|^{p-1}u. \tag{2} \] If \(u\) is a solution to (2), then, for any \(\lambda>0\), \(u_\lambda(\xi,\tau)=\lambda^{2/(p-1)}u(\lambda \xi, \lambda^2 \tau)\) is also a solution to (2). The solution is called a self-similar solution if \(u\equiv u_\lambda\) for any \(\lambda\). It is known that \(u\) must be of the form \(u(\xi,\tau)=\tau^{-1/(p-1)} f(\xi/\sqrt{\tau})\). For some particular choice of \(f_\gamma\) (smooth, even, positive with \(f_\gamma(0)=\gamma\) for some \(\gamma\)), we have the self-similar solution \(g_\gamma(\xi,\tau)=\tau^{-1/(p-1)} f_\gamma(\xi/\sqrt{\tau})\). It was previously shown that we have stability of these solutions in the sense that, for initial data \(u(\xi,1)\), at \(\tau=1\), near \(f_\gamma\), there exists a unique global solution \(u\), for which we have \(\tau^{1/(p-1)} u(\xi \sqrt{\tau},\tau)-f_\gamma(\xi\) converges to \(0\) in appropriate norms, when \(\tau\rightarrow \infty\). Although \(g_\gamma(\xi,\tau)\) is not a solution to (1), the author studied its asymptotic stability in the following sense. Let \(\tau_0 > 1\) be a fixed, sufficiently large real number. For \((u(\xi,\tau_0), \partial_\tau u(\xi,\tau_0))\) near \((g_\gamma(\xi,\tau_0),\partial_\tau g_\gamma(\xi,\tau_0))\), the corresponding solution \(u(\xi,\tau)\) of to (1) converges to \(g_\gamma\) in an appropriate norm when \(\tau\rightarrow \infty\).