A note on the indirect controls for a coupled system of wave equations (Q2094303)

The paper is focused on the boundary control of a system of linear wave equations defined on a bounded spatial domain with smooth boundary. The equations may be coupled through the presence of linear combinations of several solution components in each equation. Satisfaction of Kalman's rank condition for the matrices defining coupling and the Dirichlet boundary conditions is necessary for approximate boundary controllability. This rank, which is required to equal the number of the solution components, is the sum of the number of boundary controls and the number of the so-called indirect controls acting on the interior of the spatial domain. The authors give a clear interpretation of what the latter controls are and how to construct them. They present an algebraic procedure in which, through successive projections onto the images of the updated boundary control matrices, consecutive systems of wave equations are formed with fewer and fewer solution components, subject to homogeneous boundary conditions and controls acting in the interior of the spatial domain, which can be regarded as the indirect controls in question. The ultimate reduced system of wave equations can be easily checked as to whether or not it is approximately controllable. The results of the paper shed light on the conditions on which the deduced approximate controllability of the most reduced system of wave equations translates into the one of the original systems of wave equations. A detailed investigation of the consecutive Kalman rank conditions is instrumental in deriving the key results. A number of illustrating examples are included to make the reading much easier. The paper is also complemented with a brief section on approximate controllability by locally distributed controls. Overall, this is a good paper on systems analysis for linear hyperbolic models, which gives some interesting insights into the mechanism of their control.