Relaxation cycles of a nonlinear wave equation that is smoothly dependent on parameters (Q1363902)

A phenomenon not encountered in ordinary differential equations is described: a nonlinear wave equation may produce relaxation cycles (due to resonance effects) even in the smooth case. Especially, existence and stability of taveling waves of the boundary value problem \[ u_{tt}+ f(u)u_t+ g(u)= a^2u_{xx},\quad u(t,x+ 2\pi)\equiv u(t,x) \] are considered, where the functions \(f,g\in C^\infty\) are subject to the following restrictions: \(f<0\) for \(-q_0< u<q_1\), where \(q_0,q_1>0\); \(f>0\) for \(u>q_1\) and \(u<-q_0\); \(f'(-q_0)f'(q_1)\neq 0\); the equations \(\Phi(u)= \Phi(-q_0)\) and \(\Phi(u)= \Phi(q_1)\), where \(\Phi'(u)= f(u)\), have unique roots \(p_1\in(q_1,\infty)\) and \(-p_0\in(-\infty, -q_0)\), respectively; and \(g(u)>0\) for \(q_1\leq u\leq p_1\), \(g(u)<0\) for \(-p_0\leq u\leq -q_0\). For the phase space of the boundary value problem, we take \(W^2_2\times W^1_2\), where \(W^2_2\) and \(W^1_2\) are Sobolev spaces of \(2\pi\)-periodic functions.