Geometric properties of root vectors for equation of nonhomogeneous damped string: transformation operators method

Abstract

The spectral decomposition theorem for a class of nonselfadjoint operators in a Hilbert space is obtained in the paper. These operators are the dynamics generators for the systems governed by 1–dim hyperbolic equations with spatially nonhomogeneous coefficients containing first order damping terms and subject to linear nonselfadjoint boundary conditions. These equations and boundary conditions describe, in particular, a spatially nonhomogeneous string subject to a distributed viscous damping and also damped at the boundary points. The main result leading to the spectral decomposition is the fact that the generalized eigenvectors (root vectors) of the above operators form Riesz bases in the corresponding energy spaces. The proofs are based on the transformation operators method. The classical concept of transformation operators is extended to the equation of damped string. Originally, this concept was developed by I. M. Gelfand, B. M. Levitan and V. A. Marchenko for 1–dim Schrödinger equation in connection with the inverse scattering problem. In the classical case, the transformation operator maps the exponential function (stationary wave function of the free particle) into the Jost solution of the perturbed Schrödinger equation. For the equation of a nonhomogeneous damped string, it is natural to introduce two transformation operators (outgoing and incoming transformation operators). The terminology is motivated by an analog with the Lax—Phillips scattering theory. The transformation operators method is used to reduce the Riesz bases property problem for the generalized eigenvectors to the similar problem for a system of nonharmonic exponentials whose complex frequencies are precisely the eigenvalues of our operators. The latter problem is solved based on the spectral asymptotics and known facts about exponential families. The main result presented in the paper means that the generator of a finite string with damping both in the equation and in the boundary conditions is a Riesz spectral operator. The latter result provides a class of nontrivial examples of non—selfadjoint operators which admit an analog of the spectral decomposition. The result also has significant applications in the control theory of distributed parameter systems.

Keywords:

• Nonselfadjoint operators
• Riesz basis
• transformation operators
• nonharmonic exponentials

AMS:

• 34B25
• 35L20
• 45D05
• 46C05
• 47E05