Blow-up of solutions to semilinear wave equations with spatial derivatives

Abstract: For small-amplitude semilinear wave equations with power type nonlinearity on the first-order spatial derivative, the expected sharp upper bound on the lifespan of solutions is obtained for both critical cases and subcritical cases, for all spatial dimensions $n>1$. It is achieved uniformly by constructing the integral equations, deriving the ordinary differential inequality system, and iteration argument. Combined with the former works, the sharp lifespan estimates for this problem are completely established, at least for the spherical symmetric case.