Global existence and regularity of solutions to a system of nonlinear Maxwell equations

We consider the model that has been suggested by Greenberg et al. (Physica D 134 (1999) 362– 383) for the ferroelectric behavior of materials. In this model, the usual (linear) Maxwell’s equations are supplemented with a constitutive relation in which the electric displacement equals a constant times the electric field plus an internal polarization variable which evolves according to an internal set of nonlinear Maxwell’s equations. For such model we provide rigorous proofs of global existence, uniqueness, and regularity of solutions. We also provide some preliminary results on the long-time behavior of solutions. The main difficulties in this study are due to the loss of compactness in the system of Maxwell’s equations. These results generalize those of Greenberg et al., where only solutions with TM (transverse magnetic) symmetry were considered.  2003 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.