On the lack of exponential stability for an elastic–viscoelastic waves interaction system

In this paper, we consider an interaction system in which a wave and a viscoelastic wave equation evolve in two bounded domains, with natural transmission conditions at a common interface. We show the lack of uniform decay of solutions in general domains. The method is based on the construction of ray-like solutions by means of geometric optics expansions and a careful analysis of the transfer of the energy at the interface.