Exponential Stability for a Diffusion Equation in Polymer Kinetic Theory

In this paper we present an exponential stability result for a diffusion equation arising from dumbbell models for polymer flow. Using the methods of semigroup theory, we show that the semigroup U(t) associated with the diffusion equation is well defined and that all solutions converge exponentially to an equilibrium solution. Both finitely and infinitely extensible dumbbell models are considered. The main tool in establishing stability is the proof of compactness of the semigroup.