We establish a new method for obtaining nonconvex spectral enclosures for operators associated with second-order differential equationsz(t) + Ḋz(t) + A 0 z(t) = 0 in a Hilbert space. In particular, we succeed in establishing the existence of a spectral gap, which is the first result of this kind since the seminal results of Krein and Langer for oscillations of damped systems. While the latter and other spectral bounds are confined to dampings D that are symmetric and dominated by A 0 , we allow for accretive D of equal strength as A 0 .To achieve these results, we prove new abstract spectral inclusion results that are much more powerful than classical numerical range bounds. Two different applications, small transverse oscillations of a horizontal pipe carrying a steady-state flow of an ideal incompressible fluid and wave equations with strong (viscoelastic and frictional) damping, illustrate that our new bounds are explicit.
KEYWORDSabstract second-order differential equation, damped system, numerical range, operator matrix, quadratic numerical range, spectrum
INTRODUCTIONThe mathematical analysis of abstract second-order Cauchy problems has been a vital field of research over the last decades. In fact, many linear stability problems in applications, particularly in elasticity theory and hydromechanics, are modeled by second-order differential equations of the formin a Hilbert space H, where A 0 is a self-adjoint and uniformly positive operator in H and D is a linear operator in H representing, eg, the damping of the underlying system; see, eg, the works 1-4 ; more recent applications arise in large-scale network dynamic systems; see, eg, the work of Nudell and Chakrabortty. 5 Here, we consider the case that A − 1 2 0 DA − 1 2 0 6546