Diffusion phenomena for the wave equation with space-dependent damping in an exterior domain (Q324578)

An initial-boundary value problem for the wave equation with a space dependent damping \(a(x)\) in an exterior domain of \(\mathbb R^N\), \(N\geq 2\) together with the initial-boundary value problem to the corresponding heat equation are considered. The aim is to study the diffusion phenomena of the damped wave equation. One starts with a study on the semigroup generated by Friedrichs extension of the operator \(L=a(x)^{(-1)}\Delta\) and one proves a semigroup estimate. In a next section, under some additional assumptions on the damping \(a(x)\), almost sharp estimates for time-derivatives of the solution to the damped wave equation are proved. Finally, using these results, one proves the main estimate showing the diffusion phenomena for the damping wave equation in an exterior domain. It is pointed out that the proof is done for a more general damping term as in the paper of the last author: [J. Hyperbolic Differ. Equ. 11, No. 4, 795--819 (2014; Zbl 1312.35026)].