Dynamics of Threshold Solutions for Energy-Critical Wave Equation

We consider the energy-critical nonlinear focusing wave equation in dimension N = 3, 4, 5. An explicit stationary solution, W, of this equation is known. In [ 8], the energy E( W, 0) has been shown to be a threshold for the dynamical behavior of solutions of the equation. In the present article we study the dynamics at the critical level E(u(0), u(1)) = E( W, 0) and classify the corresponding solutions. We show in particular the existence of two special solutions, connecting different behaviors for negative and positive times. Our results are analogous to [ 3], which treats the energy-critical nonlinear focusing radial Schrodinger equation, but without any radial assumption on the data. We also refine the understanding of the dynamical behavior of the special solutions.