Small data global existence and decay for two dimensional wave maps

Abstract: We prove the small-data global existence for the wave-map equation on $\mathbb{R}^{1,2}$ using a variant of the vector field method. The main innovations lie in the introduction of two new linear estimates. First is the control of the dispersive decay of the solution $\phi$ itself (as opposed to its derivatives), via a logarithmic weighted Hardy inequality. This control has not been previously established using purely physical space methods in two spatial dimensions. Second is a point-wise decay estimate for a twisted derivative of $\phi$ associated to the Morawetz $K$ multiplier, that cannot be reduced to point-wise decay estimates associated to the standard commutator vector fields. As the linear theory is largely similar between dimensions, and in view of the novelty of the second innovation even in higher dimensions, we include a discussion of the method for $\mathbb{R}^{1,d}$ in general. Both linear estimates are used crucially in our study: the control of the wave-map equation in the small data regime necessarily requires understanding the dispersive behavior of the bare solution $\phi$ itself, by virtue of the equation it satisfies. The point-wise decay for the twisted derivative allows us to avoid certain top-order logarithmic energy growths; this is indispensable for extending our argument from the case of compactly supported initial data (to which our methods are most naturally adapted) to initial data that are strongly localized but not necessarily of compact support, via an iterative construction.