Regular solutions of wave equations containing nonlinearities of the type L Φ L

Synopsis Regular solutions of the forced nonlinear wave equation uu + L4u + LΦLu = r are studied in Hilbert spaces. L is a linear, positive, selfadjoint operator and the nonlinear nucleus Φ(u) = f(|u|2)u is generated by a C1-function f, such that LΦ(Lu) = f(|Lu|2)L2u. If the initial value data u(0) = ϕ and u1(0) = ψ belong to the domain D(Lk+4) and D(Lk+2), respectively, and if rεD(Lk), then there is a (global) solution u(t) such that u ε D(Lk+4), ut ε D(Lk+2) and uuε D(Lk) for all times t. The abstract result is applied to examples in nonlinear elasticity theory.