Special uniform decay rate of local energy for the wave equation with variable coefficients on an exterior domain

Abstract

We consider the wave equation with variable coefficients on an exterior domain in $\R^n$($n\ge 2$). We are interested in finding a special uniform decay rate of local energy different from the constant coefficient wave equation. More concretely, if the dimensional $n$ is even, whether the uniform decay rate of local energy for the wave equation with variable coefficients can break through the limit of polynomial and reach exponential; if the dimensional $n$ is odd, whether the uniform decay rate of local energy for the wave equation with variable coefficients can hold exponential as the constant coefficient wave equation . \quad \ \ We propose a cone and establish Morawetz's multipliers in a version of the Riemannian geometry to derive uniform decay of local energy for the wave equation with variable coefficients. We find that the cone with polynomial growth is closely related to the uniform decay rate of the local energy. More concretely, for radial solutions, when the cone has polynomial of degree $\frac{n}{2k-1}$ growth, the uniform decay rate of local energy is exponential; when the cone has polynomial of degree $\frac{n}{2k}$ growth, the uniform decay rate of local energy is polynomial at most. In addition, for general solutions, when the cone has polynomial of degree $n$ growth, we prove that the uniform decay rate of local energy is exponential under suitable Riemannian metric. It is worth pointing out that such results are independent of the parity of the dimension $n$, which is the main difference with the constant coefficient wave equation. Finally, for general solutions, when the cone has polynomial of degree $m$ growth, where $m$ is any positive constant, we prove that the uniform decay rate of the local energy is of primary polynomial under suitable Riemannian metric.