  We study the Cauchy problem for the nonlinear damped wave equation and
establish the large data local well-posedness and small data global
well-posedness with slowly decaying initial data. We also prove that the
asymptotic profile of the global solution is given by a solution of the
corresponding parabolic problem, which shows that the solution of the damped
wave equation has the diffusion phenomena. Moreover, we show blow-up of
solution and give the estimate of the lifespan for a subcritical nonlinearity.
In particular, we determine the critical exponent for any space dimension.
