Indirect stabilization of nonlinear coupled wave equations in the presence of time delay or indefinite damping

Abstract: This paper explores the exponential stability of two nonlinear wave equations coupled through their velocities. The analysis is divided into two main cases. First, we consider a system where one equation is damped, while the other experiences a discrete time delay. By reformulating the problem in an abstract framework, we use semigroup theory and energy methods to establish well-posedness and derive conditions that guarantee exponential energy decay. In the second case, we examine a scenario where a frictional damping term appears in the first equation, while the second equation contains an indefinite damping term, namely with a sign-changing coefficient. Although this setup can be viewed as a special case of the first, we analyze it separately and show that exponential stability still holds under a weaker condition.