Existence and uniqueness of a solution in the space of BV functions to the equation of a vibrating membrane with a ``viscosity'' term (Q457928)

Summary: A nonlinear equation of motion of vibrating membrane with a ``viscosity'' term is investigated. Usually, the term \(-\Delta u_t\) is added, and it is well known that this equation is well posed in the space of \(W^{1,2}\) functions. In this paper, the viscosity term is changed to \(-(\mathrm{div}(\nabla u/\sqrt{1+|\nabla u|^2}))_t\), and it is proved that if initial data is slightly smooth (but belonging to \(W^{2,2}\) is sufficient), then a weak solution exists uniquely in the space of BV functions.