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Conference on Non-linear Phenomena in Mathematical Physics: Dedicated to Cathleen Synge Morawetz on her 85th birthday
September 18-20, 2008
Fields Institute
Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Organizers
Jim Colliander (University of Toronto), Susan Friedlander (University of Southern California) Irene M. Gamba (U. Texas at Austin) - Committee Chair, Fern Hunt (NIST) Barbara L. Keyfitz (Fields Institute, Canada), Walter Strauss (Brown University)

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Wave equations with variable coefficients and space dependent damping
by
Petronela Radu
University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Department of Mathematics, Lincoln NE 68588
Coauthors: Grozdena Todorova (University of Tennessee, Knoxville) Boris Yordanov (University of Tennessee, Knoxville)

Damped wave equations with variable coefficients can be seen as models of either hyperbolic diffusion or wave propagation under the action of friction forces in a heterogeneous medium. We establish decay rates for the energy and the L2 norm of the solution by employing a strengthened multiplier method. The central piece in the proof is an approximating profile constructed from a special subsolution of a related elliptic problem. Decay rates for higher energies are obtained by following an approach due to Nakao.

Date received: July 9, 2008

Copyright © 2008 by the author(s). The author(s) of this document and the organizers of the conference have granted their consent to include this abstract in Atlas Conferences Inc. Document # caxk-05.