Formation of singularities for a family of 1D quasilinear wave equations

Abstract

We consider the blow-up of solutions to the following parameterized nonlinear wave equation: $u_{tt}=c(u{)}^2{u}_{xx}+\lambda c(u)c^{\prime }(u)(u_x{)}^2$ with the real parameter $\lambda$. In previous works, it was reported that there exist finite time blow-up solutions with $\lambda =1$ and $2$. However, the construction of a blow-up solution depends on the symmetric structure of the equation (e.g., the energy conservation law). In the present paper, we extend the blow-up result with $\lambda =1$ to the case with $\lambda \in (0,1]$ by using a new $L^{2/\lambda }$ estimate. Moreover, some properties for the blow-up solution including the Hölder continuity are also discussed.

accepted by Indiana University Mathematics Journal in 2021