Internal control of systems of semilinear coupled 1-D wave equations

Abstract

We prove the internal controllability of some systems of two coupled wave equations in one space dimension, with one control, under certain conditions on the coupling. To do this we apply the "fictitious control method" in two cases: general systems with a "non-degenerate" coupling, and a particular case where the coupling is "degenerate", namely a cubic coupling. In the latter case, our proof requires to find nontrivial trajectories of the control system that go from $0$ to $0$. We build these trajectories by adapting (in $1$ space dimension) a construction developed by Jean-Michel Coron, Sergio Guerrero and Lionel Rosier for the study of coupled parabolic systems.