Controllability of hyperbolic systems under singular perturbations (Q5926562)

Smoothing properties complicate the controllability problem for parabolic equations; in fact, even for the one-dimensional linear heat equation the precise characterization of states reachable from a given state is an open problem (although various partial spaces of reachable states have been identified over the years). On the other hand, hyperbolic equations lack smoothing properties thus the identification of reachable states is usually easier. So, a method to deal with controllability of parabolic equations is the singular perturbation method of ``making the equation hyperbolic'' by adding a second derivative term with a coefficient \(\varepsilon\) and then letting the coefficient tend to zero. This of course requires a convergence analysis of the controls as \(\varepsilon \to 0.\) The author implements this idea for second order hyperbolic operator equations. The problem is that of bringing an initial condition to a given final state, and the results include convergence rates for the controls and the corresponding trajectories.