Optimal decay for waves damped by superellipses

Energy decay rates for solutions of the damped wave equation on the torus are known to be influenced by the geometry of the damped set and the growth properties of the damping. In this paper we produce lower bounds on energy decay rates for a class of damping which are positive on a superellipse and grow polynomially like the distance to the boundary of the superellipse. The energy decay rates we obtain depend explicitly on the exponent used to define the superellipse and the polynomial power. We show these rates are sometimes optimal. The proof adapts quasimodes from $y$-invariant damping using a simplification of the usual normal form argument.