A global existence theorem for the Dirichlet problem in nonlinear \(n\)-dimensional visocelasticity (Q1913887)

The authors obtain global existence and exponential decay of smooth solutions for the nonlinear \(n\)-dimensional viscoelastic system of integral type \[ \partial^2_tu_i-A_{ijk\ell}(\nabla u) {\partial^2u_k\over\partial x_j\partial x_\ell}+\int^t_0 G_{ijk\ell}(t-\tau,\nabla u(\tau)) {\partial^2u_k(\tau)\over\partial x_j\partial x_\ell} d\tau=0 \] for \(i=1,\dots,n\), together with initial conditions \(u(x,0)=u^0(x)\), \(u^0_t(x,0)=u^1(x)\), \(x\in\overline\Omega\), and homogeneous Dirichlet boundary conditions. The coefficients satisfy the following conditions: \[ A_{ijk\ell}(0)= A_{k\ell ij}(0)= A_{jik\ell}(0); \] \[ (\partial^m_t G_{ijk\ell})(t,0)= (\partial^m_tG_{k\ell ij})(t,0)= (\partial^m_tG_{jik\ell})(t,0),\;t\geq 0,\;m=0,1,2; \] \[ A_{ijk\ell}(0)\xi_i\xi_k\eta_j\eta_\ell\geq \mu_0|\xi|^2|\eta|^2;\;G_{ijk\ell}(0,0)\xi_i\xi_k\eta_j\eta_\ell\geq \mu_0|\xi|^2|\eta|^2; \] \[ \Biggl\{A_{ijk\ell}(0)- \int^\infty_0 G_{ijk\ell}(\tau,0)d\tau\Biggr\}\xi_i\xi_k\eta_j\eta_\ell\geq \mu_0|\xi|^2|\eta|^2 \] with some constant \(\mu_0>0\) for any \(\xi=(\xi_1,\dots,\xi_n)\in\mathbb{R}^n\) and \(\eta=(\eta_1,\dots,\eta_n)\in\mathbb{R}^n\). Moreover, they assume that \[ 0\leq\mu_0 G_{ijk\ell}(t,0)\xi_i\xi_k\eta_j\eta_\ell\leq- (\partial_t G_{ijk\ell})(t,0)\xi_i\xi_k\eta_j\eta_\ell; \] \[ \mu_0r(t)|\xi|^2|\eta|^2\leq G_{ijk\ell}(t,0)\xi_i\xi_k\eta_j\eta_\ell;\;|\partial^m_t G_{ijk\ell}(t,0)|\leq\mu_1r(t) \] for \(m=0,1,2\), \(t\geq 0\), and \(\xi\), \(\eta\in\mathbb{R}^n\) and that \[ |\partial^m_tG_{ijk\ell}(t,0)|\leq \mu_1r(t),\;|\nabla^{L-2-m}_w\partial^m_t G_{ijk\ell}(t,w)|, \] \[ \int^t_0|\nabla_w G_{ijk\ell}(\tau,w)|d\tau,\;\int^t_0|\nabla_w\partial_t G_{ijk\ell}(\tau,w)|d\tau\leq\mu_1 \] for \(0\leq m\leq L-2\), \(1\leq i,j,k,\ell\leq n\), \(t\geq 0\) and \(w\in\mathbb{R}^n\) with \(|w|\leq 1\), where \(\mu_1\) is some positive constant and \(r(t)\) is some nonnegative, continuous and bounded function defined on \([0,\infty)\). In order to get the exponential decay of the energy, in addition to all the assumption mentioned above they assume that \(|\nabla_w\partial^m_t G_{ijk\ell}(t,w)|\leq \mu_2r(t)\) for \(m=0,1,2\), \(t\geq 0\) and \(w\in\mathbb{R}^n\) with \(|w|\leq 1\) with some positive constant \(\mu_2\). Roughly speaking, the result is that if the initial data are small and smooth in a certain sense, then the unique smooth solution exists globally in time, and moreover its energy decays exponentially as \(t\to\infty\).