Non-autonomous dynamics of wave equations with nonlinear damping and critical nonlinearity

The authors consider non-autonomous dynamical behaviour of wave-type evolutionary equations with nonlinear damping and critical nonlinearity. These type of waves equations are formulated as non-autonomous dynamical systems (namely, cocycles). A sufficient and necessary condition for the existence of pullback attractors is established for norm-to-weak continuous non-autonomous dynamical systems, in terms of pullback asymptotic compactness or pullback κ-contraction criteria. A technical method for verifying pullback asymptotic compactness via contractive functions is devised. These results are then applied to the wave-type evolutionary equations with nonlinear damping and critical nonlinearity, to obtain the existence of pullback attractors. The required pullback asymptotic compactness for the existence of pullback attractors is fulfilled by some new a priori estimates for concrete wave-type equations arising from applications. Moreover, the pullback κ-contraction criterion for the existence of pullback attractors is of independent interest.