Periodic solutions to one-dimensional wave equation with piece-wise constant coefficients (Q678071)

The authors consider the one-dimensional wave equation \[ u(x) y_{tt}(x,t)- (u(x) y_x(x, t))_x= f(x,t),\quad x\in (0,1),\quad t\in\mathbb{R} \] with piecewise constant coefficients \(u\), boundary conditions of mixed type \(-u(0) y_x(0,t)= g(t)\), \(y(1,t)= 0\) for \(t\in\mathbb{R}\) and with periodicity conditions \(y(x,t)= y(x,t+ T)\), \(y_t(x,t)= y_t(x,t+ T)\). For rational \(T\), the dependence of weak solutions on the data is obtained. The case, where \(T\) is irrational, is left as an open problem. Moreover, the following optimization problem is studied: to given \(y_0\) find a control function \(u\) which minimizes \(\int^T_0 (y(0,t)- y_0(t))^2dt\), where \(y\) is the weak solution for the problem above, with coefficients given by \(u\) and with \(f= 0\). In the last section, the authors study the semilinear version of the problem \[ u(x) y_{tt}(x,t)- (u(x) y_x(x,t))_x+ F(x, t,y(x,t))= 0,\quad x\in(0,1),\quad t\in\mathbb{R} \] with the nonlinear function \(F\) which satisfies linear growth conditions with respect to the variable \(y\).