Problems of two-sided boundary control for the wave equation on subcritical intervals in classes of strong generalized solutions (Q2514862)

The following controlled boundary value problem is considered \[ \displaylines{\rho(x)y_{tt} = (k(x)y_x)_x - q(x)y\;,\;0<t<T\;,\;0<x<l \cr -\beta_0ky_x + \sigma_0y|_{x=0} = u_0(t)\;,\;\beta_1ky_x + \sigma_1y|_{x=l} = u_1(t)\;,\;0<t<T \cr y|_{t=0} = 0\;,\;y_t|_{t=0} = 0\;,\;0<x<l} \] and the problem is to find a pair of control functions \((u_0(t),u_1(t))\) that takes the system to the terminal state \[ y|_{t=T} = f^0(x)\;,\;y_t|_{t=T} = f^1(x)\;,\;0<x<l \] The following assumptions are made \[ \displaylines{\rho(x),k(x)\in C^2[0,l]\;,\;q(x)\in C[0,l]\;,\;\rho(x)\geq\rho^*>0\;,\;k(x)\geq k^*>0, q(x)\geq 0 \cr \beta_i = 0\vee 1\;,\;\sigma_i\geq 0\;,\;\beta_i + \sigma_i>0\;;\;if\;\beta_i=0\;,\;then\;\sigma_i=1\;,\;i=0,1} \] The main result of the paper is to prove that a certain unbounded operator on Hilbert spaces is strongly positive.