Central manifold theory for the generalized equation of Kirchhoff strings on \(\mathbb R^N\) (Q556350)

The authors study the generalized quasilinear dissipative Kirchhoff string problem given by the nonlocal hyperbolic initial value problem \[ \begin{aligned} &u_{tt}=-\| A^{1/2}u\| _H^2Au-\delta Au_t+f(u),\quad x\in{\mathbb R}^N,\,t\geq 0, \\ &u(x,0)=u_0(x),\quad u_t(x,0)=u_1(x),\quad x\in{\mathbb R}^N\end{aligned}\tag{\(*\)} \] in dimensions \(N\geq 3\) and for parameters \(\delta>0\), where \(H\) denotes an adequate Hilbert space. In an appropriate space setting (explicit examples are given), local and global existence of weak solutions to \((\ast)\) is established for a linear operator \(A\) and \(C^1\)-nonlinearities \(f\) with \(| f(u)| \leq k| u| ^{a+1}\), \(| f'(u)| \leq k| u| ^a\) and \(0\leq a\leq\frac{4}{N-2}\). Using a spectral analysis for the linear part and well-established results on linearized stability from, e.g, \textit{D.~Henry} [Geometric theory of semilinear parabolic equations, Lecture Notes in Mathematics. 840. Berlin etc.: Springer-Verlag (1981; Zbl 0456.35001)], the local stability of the zero solution \(u=0\) is investigated under the assumption \(f'(0)\neq 0\). In case \(f'(0)=0\), a transformation due to \textit{R. L.~Pego} [Arch. Ration. Mech. Anal. 97, 353--394 (1987; Zbl 0648.73017)] is applied to the above equation to obtain a reaction diffusion equation possessing a local center manifold. Then the reduction principle implies stability conditions for the zero solution \(u=0\) of Kirchhoff's string problem. Finally, stability is studied in presence of a weak dissipation.