Second order nonlinear evolution inclusions. II: Structure of the solution set (Q2431907)

The authors study the structural properties of the set of solutions of second-order evolution inclusions defined in the analytic framework of an evolution triple of spaces. Denoted by \(T\) the closed interval \([0,b]\) and by \((X,H,X^*)\) the evolution triple of spaces (\(H\) is a Hilbert space, \(X\) is a Banach space which is embedded compactly into \(H\), hence so does \(H=H^*\) into \(X^*\)), the problem under consideration is \[ \ddot{x}(t) +A(t,\dot{x}(t))+Bx(t) \in F(t,x(t),\dot{x}(t)) \text{ a. e. in } T, \quad x(0)=z_0, \qquad \dot{x}(0)=z_1, \] where \(A:T \times X \to X^*\) is a nonlinear operator, \(B:X \to X^*\) is a linear operator, and \(F:T \times H \times H \to 2^H \backslash \{\emptyset \}\) is a multivalued nonlinearity with closed values. The authors prove that under suitable assumptions, if \(F\) has convex values, then the solution set is compact, while for the nonconvex problem, they show that it is path connected. Moreover, they prove that the solution set is closed only if the multivalued nonlinearity is convex-valued. An application to a nonlinear hyperbolic problem with discontinuities is given.