Lyapunov functionals for reaction-diffusion equations with memory

We consider a reaction-diffusion equation in which the usual diffusion term also depends on the past history of the diffusion itself. This equation has been analysed by several authors, with an emphasis on the longtime behaviour of the solutions. In this respect, the first results have been obtained by using the past history approach. They show that the equation, subject to a suitable boundary condition, defines a dissipative dynamical system which possesses a global attractor. A similar theorem has been recently proved by Chepyzhov and Miranville, using a different method based on the notion of trajectory attractors. In addition, those authors provide sufficient conditions that ensure the existence of a Lyapunov functional. Here we show that a similar result can be demonstrated within the past history approach, with less restrictive conditions. Copyright (c) 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.