Existence of global solutions and energy decay for the Carrier equation with dissipative term (Q1854083)

The paper deals with the existence and uniqueness of global solutions to the mixed problem for the Carrier equation \(u_{tt}-M(\|u\|_{2,\Omega }^2) \Delta u +g(u_t)=f\), with specified conditions on the functions \(M\) and \(g\), in a smooth bounded domain \(\Omega \subset {\mathbb R}^n\). The Dirichlet boundary condition as well as the initial conditions for \(u\) and \(u_t\) are considered. The method of nonlinear damping is used to prove the existence and uniqueness of the solution in the appropriate Sobolev function space provided that the data belong to the natural Sobolev/Lebesgue spaces. Moreover, the decay of the energy norm is studied in spaces of dimension \(n\leq 6\), proving that the norm decays as \((1+t)^{-1/2}\). In a particular case even the exponential decay of order \(e^{-Kt}\) is established. The paper is well written and interesting.