Potential well and exact boundary controllability for semilinear wave equations (Q647220)

This paper deals with the following exact boundary controllability for the following cubic semilinear wave equation: \[ \partial_t^2 u(x,t)-\Delta u(x,t)=u^3(x,t),\;\;(x,t)\in \Omega\times (0,T)\tag{1} \] with the initial conditions \[ u(x,0)=f_0(x),\;\;\partial_t u(x,0)=f_1(x),\;\;x\in \Omega\tag{2} \] and the boundary conditions \[ u(x,t)=0,\, (x,t)\in \Gamma_0\times (0,T),\quad u(x,t)=h(x,t),\;\;(x,t)\in \Gamma_1\times (0,T), \tag{3} \] where \(T>0\) and \(\Omega\) is a bounded open subset of \(\mathbb{R}^n,\, n=1,2 \text{ or } 3 ,\) with smooth boundary \(\Gamma=\Gamma_0\cup\Gamma_1\) and \(\Gamma_0,\, \Gamma_1\) are nonempty. More precisely, the problem considered is stated as follow: Given \(T>0\), find a control \(h\) such that if \(u\) is solution to (1)--(3), then \[ u(x,T)=g_0(x),\;\;\partial_t u(x,T)=g_1(x),\;\;x\in \Omega. \] The authors show that if the initial data are in a suitable so-called potential well, then the sufficient condition for the global existence is also sufficient to ensure the exact boundary controllability of the problem. The proof uses the constructive method introduced by the first author and \textit{Z. Lei} [SIAM J. Control Optim. 46, No. 3, 1022--1051 (2007; Zbl 1147.93012)].