On second order hyperbolic equations with coefficients degenerating at infinity and the loss of derivatives and decays (Q324559)

The classical Cauchy problem to the homogeneous wave equation with a decaying coefficient \(a(t,x)>0\) defined on \([0,T]\times \mathbb R\) is considered. It is said that \(a(t,x)>0\) is a condition between the strictly hyperbolic condition and the weakly hyperbolic one. One defines the energy \(E(t)\) and one introduces a weight function suitable for the energy computations. Under some additional assumptions on the decay coefficient and weight function the existence of a unique solution of the Cauchy problem is proved. If \(a(t,x)\) has a polynomial decay and initial data have exponential decays, the unique solution to the Cauchy problem has an exponential decay. In case initial data have polynomial decays, the unique solution of the Cauchy problem has a polynomial decay too. Some weighted, in \(L^2\) norm, energy type estimations are shown.