Partial differential equations with piecewise constant delay (Q1178788)

In this paper, partial differential equations with piecewise constant delay are considered. A typical linear problem is \[ u_{tt}(x,t)=a^ 2u_{xx}(x,t)-bu_{xx}(x,[t]),\qquad u(x,0)=f_ 0(x),\quad u_ t(x,0)=g_ 0(x). \] Existence and uniqueness theorems are proved. Moreover, in the case of loaded equations of the form \[ \partial u(x,t)/\partial t=P(\partial/\partial x)u(x,t)+\sum^ q_{j=1}Q_ j(\partial/\partial x)u(x,t_ j),\quad u(x,0)=u_ 0(x) \] explicit solutions can be found by using Fourier transforms. For more general equations of the form \(u'(t)=Au(t)+Bu([t])\) on a Banach space, the semigroup formulation is used to obtain explicit solutions.