Internal Modes and Radiation Damping for Quadratic Klein-Gordon in 3d
Abstract
We consider Klein-Gordon equations with an external potential V V and a quadratic nonlinearity in 3 + 1 3+1 space dimensions. We assume that V V is regular and decaying and that the (massive) Schrödinger operator H = − Δ + V + m 2 H = -\Delta + V + m^2 has a positive eigenvalue λ 2 > m 2 \lambda ^2 > m^2 with associated eigenfunction ϕ \phi . This is a so-called internal mode and gives rise to time-periodic and spatially localized solutions of the linear flow. We address the classical question of whether such solutions persist under the full nonlinear flow, and describe the behavior of all solutions in a suitable neighborhood of zero. Provided a natural Fermi-Golden rule holds, our main result shows that a solution to the nonlinear Klein-Gordon equation can be decomposed into a discrete component a ( t ) ϕ a(t)\phi where a ( t ) a(t) decays over time, and a continuous component v v which has some weak dispersive properties. We obtain precise asymptotic information on these components such as the sharp rates of decay | a ( t ) | ≈ t − 1 / 2 |a(t)| \approx t^{-1/2} and
Fields of Study & Subjects
Advanced Mathematical Physics Problems
Nonlinear Waves and Solitons
Stability and Controllability of Differential Equations
Publication details
- Journal / source
- Memoirs of the American Mathematical Society
- Publisher
- American Mathematical Society (AMS)
- Volume
- 318
- Issue
- 1615
- Publication date
- 27 February 2026
- Language
- EN