Energy decay for hyperbolic systems of second-order equations (Q1120743)

This paper deals with the solutions in the form \(U(x,t)\equiv col[U'(x,t),U^ 2(x,t),...,U^ m(x,t)]\), \(m\geq 1\), of the initial- boundary value problem \[ {\mathcal L}U\equiv \nabla^{(4)'}(A\nabla^{(4)}U)+(b'-a'_ t)\nabla U+(\quad d_ t- e)U_ t-fU=0,\quad (x,t)\in V\times [0,\infty), \] \[ U(x,t)=0,\quad (x,t)\in \partial V\times [0,\infty),\quad U(x,0)=h(x),\quad U_ t(x,0)=k(x),\quad x\in V, \] where \(A=\left[ \begin{matrix} E&a\\ a'&-a' \end{matrix} \right]\) is a \(4m\times 4m\) matrix in which E is a positive semidefinite \(3\times 3\) matrix with elements \(E^{ij}\) \((1\leq i,j\leq 3)\) and \[ \nabla \equiv col[\partial /\partial x',\partial /\partial x^ 2,\partial /\partial x^ 3],\quad \nabla^{(4)}\equiv col[\nabla,\partial /\partial t],\quad \nabla '\equiv [\partial /\partial x',\partial /\partial x^ 2,\partial /\partial x^ 3],\quad \nabla^{(4)'}\equiv [\nabla ',\partial /\partial t]. \] An algebraic rate of decay for the ``local energy'' of solutions of this equation is established.