Stabilization of local energy in an exterior domain for the wave equation with a localized dissipation (Q1270020)

An initial-boundary value problem for the dissipative wave equation \(u_{tt}-\Delta u+a(x) u=0\) is considered in an exterior domain in \({\mathbb R}^N\) with \(N\geq 2,\) where \(a(x)\) is compactly supported near the inner boundary and satisfies certain additional restrictions. The author estimates the decay rate in \(t\) for the local energy related to the solutions of this equation.