Decay properties for the solutions of a partial differential equation with memory (Q1014772)

The paper deals with the problem \[ \begin{aligned} &u''(t) + A\, u(t) - (k\ast A\,u)(t) = f(t),\;\;\;t> 0;\\ &u(0) = u_0,\;\, u'(0) = u_1\end{aligned} \] in a general Hilbert space. Here, \(\ast\) indicates the convolution, \(A\) is an unbounded selfadjoint, positive definite operator and \(k\) is a scalar memory kernel. The equation can model phenomena in viscoelasticity or heat conduction with memory. The author considers the stability properties of the solutions to this problem, with emphasis on decay of polynomial or exponential type. Due to the presence of the convolution memory term, the decay estimates are obtained here by using frequency domain methods rather than a Lyapunov functional. At the end of the paper, the result is extended to a semilinearly perturbed problem.