Mildly degenerate Kirchhoff equations with weak dissipation: global existence and time decay

We consider the hyperbolic-parabolic singular perturbation problem for a degenerate quasilinear Kirchhoff equation with weak dissipation. This means that the coefficient of the dissipative term tends to zero when t tends to +infinity. We prove that the hyperbolic problem has a unique global solution for suitable values of the parameters. We also prove that the solution decays to zero, as t tends to +infinity, with the same rate of the solution of the limit problem of parabolic type.