Time dependent friction in a free gas

We consider a body moving in a perfect gas, described by the mean-field approximation and interacting elastically with the body, we study the friction exerted by the gas on the body fixed at constant velocities. The time evolution of the body in this setting was studied in Caprino et al. [Math. Phys. 264, 167-189 (2006)], Caprino et al. [Math. Models Methods Appl. Sci. 17, 1369-1403 (2007)], and Cavallaro [Rend. Mat. Appl. 27, 123-145 (2007)] for object with simple shape; the first study where a simple kind of concavity was considered was in Sisti and Ricciuti [SIAM J. Math. Anal. 46, 3759-3611 (2014)], showing new features in the dynamic but not in the friction term. The case of more general shape of the body was left out for further difficulties, and we believe indeed that there are actually non-trivial issues to be faced for these more general cases. To show this and in the spirit of getting a more realistic perspective in the study of friction problems, in this paper, we focused our attention on the f...