Finite-time blow-up for the mass-critical half-wave equation with negative energy

Abstract

We study the one-dimensional focusing mass-critical half-wave equation \[ i\partial_tu=|D|u-|u|^2u. \] For even initial data with negative energy and mass slightly above the ground-state mass, we prove finite-time blow-up and obtain the upper bound \[ \|u(t)\|_{\dot H^{1/2}} \lesssim \frac{|\log(T-t)|^{1/4}}{\sqrt{T-t}} \qquad\text{as }t\uparrow T. \] This is the first finite-time blow-up result for negative-energy solutions to the mass-critical half-wave equation in the near-ground-state regime. The proof uses the modulation analysis developed by Merle--Raphaël \cite{MerleRaphael2005AnnMath}. For the half-wave equation, the key missing ingredient is a coercivity estimate for a nonlocal quadratic form generated by the scaling direction. Unlike the local NLS, the half-wave equation does not admit the ODE methods used to establish the corresponding coercivity estimate. Instead, we prove the coercivity estimate by an analytic reduction followed by a rigorous computer-assisted proof. The spectral analysis part reduces the coercivity problem to a finite collection of spectral inequalities by combining constrained Morse index arguments with the Birman--Schwinger principle. The computer-assisted part certifies these inequalities by interval arithmetic using a validated approximation of the ground state obtained by compactifying the real line. Together with the modulation analysis, this coercivity theorem gives the finite-time blow-up result.