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A commuted wave energy controls derivatives of a solution after applying the commutation vector fields for the wave equation. A convenient equivalent norm is $A_m(t)={\sum }_{|I|\le m}\Vert \partial Z^{I}u(t){\Vert }_2$. The wave energy estimate controls its growth through commuted sources, while the Klainerman-Sobolev inequality gives pointwise decay for low-order derivatives.

For $u_{tt}-\Delta u+u^3=0$ in three spatial dimensions, conserved positive wave energy $E$ controls $\Vert \nabla u{\Vert }_2$. The Sobolev inequality gives $\Vert u^2\nabla u{\Vert }_2\lesssim \Vert \nabla u{\Vert }_2^2\Vert D^{2}u{\Vert }_2\lesssim E\Vert D^{2}u{\Vert }_2$. Differentiated wave energy estimates and the Gronwall inequality then give $\Vert u(t){\Vert }_{{\dot{H}}^2}+\Vert u_t(t){\Vert }_{{\dot{H}}^1}\le CD{e}^{CEt}$, where $D$ bounds the corresponding initial Sobolev norms.

Use unit speed and write the Cauchy data as $u(0)=f$, $u_t(0)=g$. For finite-energy data define the wave energy estimate quantityMultiply $u_{tt}-{\Delta }_{x}u=0$ by $u_t$ and use integration by parts. With compact support or sufficient decay the boundary flux is zero, soFor general finite-energy solutions, cutoff or approximation arguments justify this identity; equivalently the local estimate below, applied in both time directions and with radii tending to infinity, gives the same equality. Arbitrary smooth data need not have finite global energy; then the global bound with an infinite right side is uninformative, while the local estimate remains useful.

If $f\in H^1$ and $g\in L^2$, the fundamental theorem of calculus and the wave energy estimate further giveTogether these yield an a priori bound for $\Vert u(t){\Vert }_{H^1}+\Vert u_t(t){\Vert }_2$ on each bounded time interval. No existence assumption is proved by the estimate itself; it controls any sufficiently regular solution.

We establish a quantitative almost global existence for wave equations estimate. Take $0<\epsilon \le 1$, fix an integer $m\ge 6$, and use the commutation vector fields for the wave equation from the preceding part. Put $\partial =({\partial }_t,\nabla )$ and define the commuted wave energyAll these L2 norms are finite on any smooth existence interval by finite propagation speed. At $t=0$, the polynomial coefficients of the vector fields are bounded on the fixed compact support of the Cauchy data. Whenever a higher time derivative occurs, use ${\varphi }_{tt}=\Delta \varphi -{\varphi }_t^2$ and its differentiated versions to express it in terms of initial spatial derivatives. Every term contains at least one factor of $\epsilon$; consequentlyfor a constant depending only on finitely many derivatives and the support radius of ${\varphi }_0,{\varphi }_1$.

The commutators $[Z,{\partial }_{\mu }]$ are constant linear combinations of translations. Together with $[\square ,S]=2\square$ and the Leibniz rule, this shows that each commuted source is a finite linear combination of productsThis statement includes the extra copies of the original source produced by the scaling vector field. In each product put the factor with fewer commutations in the Lp norm $L^{\infty }$ and the other in the L2 norm. The lower order is at most $\lfloor m/2\rfloor$. Applying the Klainerman-Sobolev inequality to ${\partial }_{\mu }{Z}^J\varphi$ costs at most two additional commutations; commuting those past ${\partial }_{\mu }$ introduces only lower-order translations. Since $\lfloor m/2\rfloor +2\le m$,The inhomogeneous wave energy estimate now givesLet $T_{\epsilon }={\epsilon }^{-N}$. Use a bootstrap argument with $A_m(t)\le 2C_0\epsilon$ up to the smaller of $T_{\epsilon }$ and the maximal existence time. The energy estimate improves this toFor each fixed $N$,Choose ${\epsilon }_N\le 1$ so that $4C_m{C}_0\epsilon \log (1+{\epsilon }^{-N})\le 1/2$ for every $0<\epsilon \le {\epsilon }_N$. Then $A_m(t)\le (3/2)C_0\epsilon$, a strict improvement. A continuity argument closes the bootstrap argument.

Finally, the translation terms in $A_m$ control ordinary spatial Sobolev norms of $\partial \varphi$. The missing L2 norm of $\varphi$ satisfiesThus the full local-existence Sobolev norms remain bounded on this finite interval. The smooth continuation criterion for semilinear wave equations extends the solution past any finite endpoint before $T_{\epsilon }$. To see smooth persistence explicitly, the tame Sobolev product estimate gives $\Vert {\varphi }_t^2{\Vert }_{H^k}\le C_k\Vert {\varphi }_t{\Vert }_{\infty }\Vert {\varphi }_t{\Vert }_{H^k}$. Ordinary differentiated wave energy estimates therefore bound each higher derivative energy by its initial value times $\exp (C_k{\int }_0^t\Vert {\varphi }_t(s){\Vert }_{\infty }ds)$. This is finite on the interval already controlled by the base commuted wave energy; no separate ${\epsilon }_N$ is needed for each derivative order. ThereforeFor $\epsilon =0$ the zero solution is global. The same energy estimate in fact permits an exponential lower bound for the lifespan, which is stronger than any fixed inverse power.

We use the homogeneous version of the Sobolev embedding theorem in three dimensions:Here homogeneous Sobolev space ${\dot{H}}^1$ is the completion of compactly supported smooth functions in the L2 norm of the gradient, identified with its $L^6$ representative. Apply this Sobolev inequality both to $\varphi$ and to its spatial derivatives.

LetThe Plancherel theorem identifies the L2 norm of the Hessian matrix with $\Vert \varphi {\Vert }_{{\dot{H}}^2}$, because ${\sum }_{i,j}{\xi }_i^2{\xi }_j^2=|\xi {|}^4$. In particular,Differentiating the defocusing semilinear wave equation gives $\square ({\partial }_i\varphi )=3{\varphi }^2{\partial }_i\varphi$. By the Holder inequality with exponents $3$ and $6$, the preceding Sobolev inequality, and conservation of the positive wave energy,Use the inhomogeneous wave energy estimate simultaneously for the three spatial derivatives. It givesThe Gronwall inequality therefore yields $B(t)\le D\exp (CEt)$. We may take the continuous, locally bounded functionThe constant is universal; the dependence on the initial data is only through $D$ and $E$. The H2 bound for the defocusing cubic wave equation holds on every existing smooth interval, without assuming the global conclusion. If $D=0$ or $E=0$, the zero solution satisfies the same estimate.