Existence and uniqueness of solutions for delay evolution equations of second order in time

We prove some results on the existence and uniqueness of solutions for a class of evolution equations of second order in time, containing some hereditary characteristics. Our theory is developed from a variational point of view, and in a general functional setting which permits us to deal with several kinds of delay terms. In particular, we can consider terms which contain spatial partial derivatives with deviating arguments. (C) 2003 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.