Local energy decay estimate of solutions to the thermoelastic plate equations in two- and three-dimensional exterior domains (Q847015)

The authors prove frequency expansions of the resolvent and local energy decay estimates for the linear thermoelastic plate equations \[ {u}_{tt}+\Delta^2u+\Delta \theta=0,\quad \theta_t-\Delta \theta-\Delta u_t=0\quad \text{in } \Omega\times \mathbb R_+, \] subject to the initial conditions \(u(x,0)=u_0(x)\), \(u_t(x,0)=v_0(x)\), \(\theta(x,0)=\theta_0(x)\) and the Dirichlet boundary conditions \(u|_\Gamma=D_\nu u|_\Gamma=\theta|_\Gamma=0\), where \(\Omega\) is an exterior domain in \(\mathbb R^n\), \(n= 2\) or \(n=3\) with a \(C^4\) boundary \(\Gamma\). The decay estimates are achieved as combinations of the spectral properties of the elliptic operator appearing in the system, of the analytical semigroups and the expansion formula of the resolvent.