The exact distributed controllability of the semilinear wave equation $y_{tt}-y_{xx} + g(y)=f ,1_{omega}$, assuming that $g$ satisfies the growth condition $vert g(s)vert /(vert svert log^{2}(vert svert))rightarrow 0$ as $vert svert rightarrow infty$ and that $g^primein L^infty_{loc}(mathbb{R})$ has been obtained by Zuazua in the nineties. The proof based on a Leray-Schauder fixed point argument makes use of precise estimates of the observability constant for a linearized wave equation. It does not provide however an explicit construction of a null control. Assuming that $g^primein L^infty_{loc}(mathbb{R})$, that $sup_{a,bin mathbb{R},a eq b} vert g^prime(a)-g^{prime}(b)vert/vert a-bvert^r<infty $ for some $rin (0,1]$ and that $g^prime$ satisfies the growth condition $vert g^prime(s)vert/log^{2}(vert svert)rightarrow 0$ as $vert svert rightarrow infty$, we construct an explicit sequence converging strongly to a null control for the solution of the semilinear equation. The method, based on a least-squares approach guarantees the convergence whatever the initial element of the sequence may be. In particular, after a finite number of iterations, the convergence is super linear with rate $1+r$. This general method provides a constructive proof of the exact controllability for the semilinear wave equation.
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