Generic transversality property for a class of wave equations with variable damping (Q2571751)

This paper concerns boundary value problems for semilinear wave equations in one space dimension with internal damping \[ u_{tt}+ \gamma(x) u_t= u_{xx}+ f(x,u),\quad x\in[0,1],\qquad u= 0,\quad x\in\{0,1\}\tag{1} \] or with boundary damping \[ \begin{gathered} u_{tt}= u_{xx}- u+ f(x,u),\quad x\in [0,1],\\ \partial_\nu u+\gamma(x)u= 0,\quad x\in \{0,1\}.\end{gathered}\tag{2} \] In (1), \(\gamma: [0,1]\to [0,\infty[\) is positive on an open subset of \([0,1]\), and in (2) \(\gamma: \{0,1\}\to [0,\infty[\setminus\{0\}\) is positive on at least one point. The problems (1) and (2) are said to have the Kupka-Smale property if all equilibria are hyperbolic and if their stable and unstable manifolds intersect transversally. Let \(k\geq 2\), and denote by \({\mathcal C}^k\) the set \(C^k([0,1]\times \mathbb{R}; \mathbb{R})\) with the Whitney topology. The author shows for both problems (1) and (2) that the set of all \(f\in{\mathcal C}^k\) such that the Kupka-Smale property holds, is generic, i.e. contains a countable intersection of open dense sets. In the proofs it is used that the asymptotic behavior of the eigenvalues of certain linear operators, associated to the linearizations of (1) and (2), is known, and that the rootvectors form a Riesz basis.