Local controllability and non-controllability for a 1D wave equation with bilinear control (Q627683)

The author considers the following wave equation \[ \left\{\begin{aligned} &\frac{\partial^2 w}{\partial t^2}(t,x)=\frac{\partial^2 w}{\partial x^2}(t,x)+u(t)\mu(x)w(t,x), \quad x\in(0,1),\;t\in(0,T), \\ &\frac{\partial w}{\partial x}(t,0)=\frac{\partial w}{\partial x}(t,1)=0,\end{aligned}\right. \tag{1} \] where \(\mu\in W^{2,\infty}((0,1),\mathbb R)\). It is proved that under generic assumptions on \(\mu\), the system (1) is locally controllable around the reference trajectory (\(w(t,x)=1,u(t)=0\)) if and only if \(T>2\). The cases \(T<2\) and \(T=2\) are also analyzed, proving negative results.