Global stability of a fractional partial differential equation (Q5939765)

The authors study the equation which is motivated by the theory of viscoelastic materials, that is \[ u_{tt}= \int^t_0 b(t-s)u_{txx} (s,x)ds+ \biggl(g \bigl(u_x(t,x)\bigr) \biggr)_x \] with boundary condition \(u(t,0)= u(t,1)=0\), \(t>0\) and initial values \(u(0,x)=u_0(x)\), \(u_t(0,x)= u_1(x)\). The convolution term represents a fractional derivative with respect to \(t\); explicitly, let \(b(t)={t^{-\alpha} \over\Gamma(1-\alpha)}\), \(\alpha\in (0,1)\). Then the equation (1) can be rewritten in terms of fractional derivatives, \[ u_{tt}= {\partial^\alpha \over\partial x^\alpha} u_{xx}+\bigl(g (u_x)\bigr)_x. \] The main goal of this paper is to prove that, even in the case of fractional derivatives where the damping effect is not so strong, the system still dissipates enough energy so that all solutions tend to zero, the unique stationary state, in energy norm.