Stability of abstract thermoelastic systems with inertial terms.

We investigate coupled systems of thermoelastic type in a general abstract form both modeling Fourier and Cattaneo type heat conduction. In particular we take into account a possible inertial term. A complete picture of the regions of exponential stability resp. non-exponential stability for the arising parameters (two from the type of thermoelastic system, one from the inertial term) is given. The regions of loss of exponential stability, while moving from the Fourier to the Cattaneo law, are thus clearly recognized and interestingly large. The polynomial stability in regions of non-exponential stability is also characterized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]