Criteria of the existence of global solutions to semilinear wave equations with first-order derivatives on exterior domains

Abstract

We study the existence of global solutions to semilinear wave equations on exterior domains $\mathbb{R}^n\setminus\mathcal{K}$, $n\geq2$, with small initial data and nonlinear terms $F(\partial u)$ where $F\in C^\kappa$ and $\partial^{\leq\kappa}F(0)=0$. If $n\geq2$ and $\kappa>n/2$, criteria of the existence of a global solution for general initial data are provided, except for non-empty obstacles $\mathcal{K}$ when $n=2$. For $n\geq3$ and $1\leq\kappa\leq n/2$, we verify the criteria for radial solutions provided obstacles $\mathcal{K}$ are closed balls centered at origin. These criteria are established by local energy estimates and the weighted Sobolev embedding including trace estimates. Meanwhile, for the sample choice of the nonlinear term and initial data, sharp estimates of lifespan are obtained.