A bilinear estimate with applications to the KdV equation

Abstract

u(x, 0) = u0(x), where u0 ∈ H(R). Our principal aim here is to lower the best index s for which one has local well posedness in H(R), i.e. existence, uniqueness, persistence and continuous dependence on the data, for a finite time interval, whose size depends on ‖u0‖Hs . Equation in (1.1) was derived by Korteweg and de Vries [21] as a model for long wave propagating in a channel. A large amount of work has been devoted to the existence problem for the IVP (1.1). For instance, (see [9], [10]), the inverse scattering method applies to this problem, and, under appropriate decay assumptions on the data, several existence results have been established, see [5],[6],[14],[28],[33]. Another approach, inherited from hyperbolic problems, relies on the energy estimates, and, in particular shows that (1.1) is locally well posed in H(R) for s > 3/2, (see [2],[3],[12],[29],[30],[31]). Using these results and conservation laws, global (in time) well posedness in H(R), s ≥ 2 was established, (see [3],[12],[30]). Also, global in time weak solutions in the energy space H(R) were constructed in [34]. In [13] and [22] a “local smoothing” effect for solutions of (1.1) was discovered. This, combined with the conservation laws, was used in [13] and [22] to construct global in time weak solutions with data in H(R), and even in L(R). In [16], we introduced oscillatory integral techniques, to establish local well posedness of (1.1) in H(R), s > 3/4, and hence, global (in time) well posedness in H(R), s ≥ 1. (In [16] we showed how to obtain the above mentioned result by Picard iteration in an appropriate function space.) In [4] J. Bourgain introduced new function spaces, adapted to the linear operator ∂t+∂ 3 x, for which there are good “bilinear” estimates for the nonlinear term ∂x(u /2). Using these spaces, Bourgain was able to establish local well posedness of (1.1) in H(R) = L(R), and hence, by a conservation