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MR837683 (87h:35217) 35L70 (81E99)

Klainerman, S. (1-NY-X)
The null condition and global existence to nonlinear wave equations.
Nonlinear systems of partial differential equations in applied mathematics, Part 1 (Santa Fe,
N.M., 1984), 293–326, Lectures in Appl. Math., 23, Amer. Math. Soc., Providence, RI, 1986.
Let R(4) denote the four-dimensional space-time Minkowski space with metric ηab =
diag(−1, 1, 1, 1) and coordinates (xa ), a = 0, 1,
2, 3. The author considers systems of nonlinear wave equations
0 00
of the type u = F (u, u , u ), where  = −ηab ∂a ∂b , u =
I (4) 0 00
(u )I=1,2,···,p is defined on R with u ,u denoting its first
a I
and second derivatives with respect to (x ), F = (F )I=1,2,···,p
0 00
is a smooth function of u, u , u defined in a neighborhood of
0 00 21p 0 00 2
(u, u , u ) = 0 in R and satisfying the hypotheses: (H1 ) F = o(|u| + |u | + |u |) for
0 00
small u, u , u , (H2 ) ∂F /∂uJab = 0 for all I 6= J and all a, b = 0, 1, 2, 3.
I

Let F = F (u, v, w) be a real-valued function in the variables u = (uI ), v = (vaI ), w = (wab I

)
with I = 1, 2, · · · , p, a < b,
p 4p
smoothly defined in a neighborhood of the origin in R × R ×
10p 0 00
R . Then F (u, u , u ) is said to satisfy the “null condition” if,
a a b
for any vector (X ), null with respect to η (i.e. ηab X X = 0),
I a I ab I a
F (u , X va , X wab ) = 0 for all u, v, w and all null vectors (X ).
Given a system of the above type with F satisfying (H1 ), it is moreover assumed: (H3 ) F =
N (u0 , u00 ) + C(u, u0 , u00 ), where N is a quadratic form in u0 , u00 which satisfies the null condition
and C(u, u0 , u00 ) = o(|u| + |u0 | + |u00 |)3 .
Given initial data u(0, x) = εf (x), ut (0, x) = εg(x), x0 = t, x = (x1 , x2 , x3 ), where ε is a
small parameter, f, g ∈ C0∞ (R3 ), it is proved under the hypotheses (H1 ), (H2 ) and (H3 ) that there
exists an ε0 sufficiently small, depending on only finitely many derivatives of F, f, g such that, for
any 0 < ε < ε0 , the system admits a unique solution u ∈ C ∞ ((0, ∞) × R3 ) satisfying the initial
data.
After a study of the null condition and the Poincaré and scaling invariance of the d’Alembertian
, a priori uniform decay estimates are made for solutions of the given system, energy estimates
are established for linear equations and then the proof is given for nonlinear equations.
{For the entire collection see MR0837670 (87a:35006a)}
Reviewed by Philippe-A. Dionne

c Copyright American Mathematical Society 1987, 2008