Decay properties and asymptotic behaviors for a wave equation with general strong damping (Q2097569)

In the present paper, the authors study the following Cauchy problem: \[ u_{tt}- \Delta u - \mu(|D|)\Delta u_t=0,\quad u(0,x)=u_0(x), \,\,\,u_t(0,x)=u_1(x).\tag{1} \] The authors interpret the term \(- \mu(|D|)\Delta u_t\) as a strong damping term in wave models. The function \(\mu=\mu(r)\) belongs to \(C(0,\infty)\) and satisfies the conditions \(\lim_{r \to 0+0} r\mu(r)=0\) and \(\lim_{r \to \infty} r\mu(r)=\infty\). The first goal of the authors is to derive decay properties of the wave type energy (even of higher order) of Sobolev solutions to (1). A key estimate to reach this goal is the following pointwise estimate which can be proved by energy method in the Fourier space: \[ |\hat u_t(t,\xi)|^2 + |\xi|^2 |\hat u(t,\xi)|^2 \lesssim e^{-c \rho(\xi)t} \big(|\hat u_1(\xi)|^2 + |\xi|^2 |\hat u_0(\xi)|^2\big), \text{ where } \rho(\xi):=\frac{|\xi|^2 \mu(|\xi|)}{|\xi|^2 \mu(|\xi|)^2}.\tag{2} \] The estimate (2) leads to the desired decay estimate by taking account a regularity loss of the solution to the data in the case \(\lim_{r \to \infty} \mu(r)=\infty\). The data are assumed to belong to some function spaces related to homogeneous Sobolev spaces with additional \(L^1\) integrability. The second goal is to describe the asymptotic profile of Sobolev solutions to (1) under same assumptions for the data. Here WKB-analysis is used, the behavior of characteristic roots is studied for small and large frequencies. This leads on the one hand to pointwise estimates for the Fourier transformed solution and on the other hand to estimates of the kernel functions appearing in the explicit representation formula for \(\hat u=\hat u(t,\xi)\). Finally, the authors describe the asymptotic profile of Sobolev solutions to (1) localized to small or large frequencies in the phase space. The condition \(\lim_{r \to \infty} \mu(r)=\infty\) is again a threshold for distinguishing different profiles of solutions.