Bilinear Estimates and Applications to Nonlinear Wave Equations

We undertake a systematic review of some results concerning local well-posedness of the Cauchy problem for certain systems of nonlinear wave equations, with minimal regularity assumptions on the initial data. Moreover we provide a considerably simplified and unified treatment of these results and provide also complete proofs for large data. The paper is also intended as an introduction to and survey of current research in the very active area of nonlinear wave equations. The key ingredients throughout the survey are the use of the null structure of the equations we consider and, intimately tied to it, bilinear estimates.