Decay rates and initial values for time-fractional diffusion-wave equations

Abstract: We consider a solution $u(\cdot,t)$ to an initial boundary value problem for time-fractional diffusion-wave equation with the order $\alpha \in (0,2) \setminus { 1}$ where $t$ is a time variable. We first prove that a suitable norm of $u(\cdot,t)$ is bounded by $\frac{1}{t^{\alpha}}$ for $0<\alpha<1$ and $\frac{1}{t^{\alpha-1}}$ for $1<\alpha<2$ for all large $t>0$. Moreover we characterize initial values in the cases where the decay rates are faster than the above critical exponents. Differently from the classical diffusion equation $\alpha=1$, the decay rate can give some local characterization of initial values. The proof is based on the eigenfunction expansions of solutions and the asymptotic expansions of the Mittag-Leffler functions for large time.