Wellposedness and wave propagation for a class of integrodifferential equations in Banach space (Q1114114)

The boundary of viscoelastic materials motivates the study of a Volterra integrodifferential equation with infinite memory of the following type: \[ (P)\quad x'(t)=A[x(t)+\int^{t}_{-\infty}F(t- s)x(s)ds]+\int^{t}_{-\infty}K(t-s)x(s)ds,\quad t>0,\quad x(t)=\hat x(t),\quad t\leq 0, \] where A is the generator of a semigroup on a Banach space X while F and K are bounded operators on X. The authors transform (P) into an evolution equation for the pair \((x(t),x_ t)\) in the space \(X\times L^ 2(0,+\infty;X)\) where for each \(t\geq 0\) we have the set \(x_ t(s)=x(t+s)\), \(s\leq 0\). If X is reflexive its solution can be considered as the adjoint of a semigroup induced by a suitable more familiar integrodifferential equation. Conditions are given for the well- posedness of (P), and also the wave propagation is studied by abstract methods.