Rapid decay of the total energy for dissipative wave equations (Q1881426)

This paper treats the total energy decay problem for linear dissipative wave equations in the \(L^2\) framework. \textit{A. Saheki} and \textit{R. Ikehata} [SUT J. Math. No. 2, 67--74 (2000; Zbl 1158.35327)] investigated the same problem for simpler equations in the weighted \(L^2\) framework and obtained the sharp result and \textit{J. Wirth} [Math. Methods. Appl. Sci. 27, 101--124 (2004; Zbl 1036.35119)] proved the similar result for the equation \(v_{tt}- \Delta v+ {\mu\over 1+ t} v_t= 0\) by using the fundamental solution. But the \(L^2\) framework is natural and standard in the treatment of the hyperbolic equation theory. The method adopted by Hirosawa and Nakazawa is adequate to study this problem. The authors prove two main thorems concerning the following initial value problem \[ w_{tt}-\Delta w+ b(t,x) w_t+ c(t, x)w= 0,\quad (t,x)\in (0,\infty)\times \mathbb{R}^N, \] \[ w(0,x)= w_0(x),\quad w_t(0,x)= w_1(x) x\in\mathbb{R}^N, \] where \(b(t, x)\) and \(c(t, x)\) are nonnegative continuous functions, and \(\| w(t)\|^2_E\) is the total energy and defined by \[ \| w(t)\|^2_E= {1\over 2} \int_{\mathbb{R}^N} \{|\nabla w(t, x)|^2+ w_t(t, x)^2+ c(t, x)w(t, x)^2\}\,dx. \] One assumption is as follows \(b(t,x)\) is bounded, and \(b_t(t, x)\leq 0\), or \(| b_t(t,x)|\leq \gamma_b(t)\) for certain \(\gamma_b\in L^1\), \(c_t(t, x)\leq 0\) or \(| c_t(t,x)|\leq \gamma_c(t) c(t, x),\) for certain \(\gamma_c\in L^1\). Another assumption is as follows \[ b_0(1+ t)^{-\sigma}\leq b(t)\leq b_1(1+ t)^{-\sigma},\;b_2(1+ t)^{-\sigma- 1}\leq -b_t(t)\leq b_3(1+ t)^{-\sigma-1}. \] Under these assumptions they show \[ \lim_{t\to\infty}\, (1+ t)\| w(t)\|^2_E= 0, \] \[ \lim_{t\to\infty}\, (1+ t)^{1+\sigma}\| w(t)\|^2_E= 0 \] and, if \(\sigma= 1\), \[ \lim_{t\to\infty}\, \| w(t)\|_{L^2}= 0. \] The last section consists of three subsections. They state there several results on energy decay rates without proof. They treat the exterior initial-boundary value problem in (ii) and the exterior initial-boundary value problem for the equation with \(c(t, x)\equiv 0\).