Regularity and energy of second order hyperbolic boundary value problems on non-timelike hypersurfaces

Abstract: We study the second order hyperbolic equations with initial conditions, a nonhomogeneous Dirichlet boundary condition and a source term. We prove the solution possesses $H^1$ regularity on any piecewise $C^1$-smooth non-timelike hypersurfaces. We generalize the notion of energy to these hypersurfaces, and establish an estimate of the difference between the energies on the hypersurface and on the initial plane where the time $t = 0$. The energy is shown to be conserved when the source term and the boundary datum are both zero. We also obtain an $L^2$ estimate for the normal derivative of the solution. In the proofs we first show these results for $C^2$-smooth solutions by using the multiplier methods, and then we go back to the original results by approximation.