Decay property of regularity-loss type and nonlinear effects for some hyperbolic-elliptic system

We study the decay property of a certain nonlinear hyperbolic-elliptic system with 2mth-order elliptic part, which is a modified version of the simplest radiating gas model. It is proved that, for m ≥ 2, the system verifies a decay property of the regularity-loss type that is characterized by the parameter m. This dissipative property is very weak in the high-frequency region and causes a difficulty in showing the global existence of solutions to the nonlinear problem. By employing the time-weighted energy method together with the optimal decay for lower-order derivatives of solutions, we overcome this difficulty and establish a global existence and asymptotic decay result. Furthermore, we show that the solution approaches the nonlinear diffusion wave described by the self-similar solution of the Burgers equation as time tends to infinity.