Test function method for blow-up phenomena of semilinear wave equations and their weakly coupled systems

Abstract: In this paper we consider the wave equations with power type nonlinearities including time-derivatives of unknown functions and their weakly coupled systems. We propose a framework of test function method and give a simple proof of the derivation of sharp upper bound of lifespan of solutions to nonlinear wave equations and their systems. We point out that for respective critical case, we use a family of self-similar solution to the standard wave equation including Gauss's hypergeometric functions which are originally introduced by Zhou (1992). However, our framework is much simpler than that. As a consequence, we found new $(p,q)$-curve for the system $\partial_t^2u-\Delta u=|v|^q$, $\partial_t^2v-\Delta v=|\partial_tu|^p$ and lifespan estimate for small solutions for new region.