Nonlinear Potentials for Hamilton–Jacobi–Bellman Equations. II

A formal method of constructing the viscosity solutions for abstract nonlinear equations of Hamilton–Jacobi–Bellman (HJB) type was developed in the previous work of the author. A new advantage of this method (which was called an nonlinear potentials method) is that it gives a possibility to choose at the first step an expected regularity of the solution and then – to construct this solution. This makes the whole procedure more simple because an analysis of regularity of viscosity solutions is usually the most complicated step.Nonlinear potentials method is a generalization of Krylov's approach to study HJB equations.In this article nonlinear potentials method is applied to elliptic degenerate HJB equations in R^d with variable coefficients.     

Convergence to equilibrium for linear spatially homogeneous Boltzmann equation with hard and soft potentials: A semigroup approach in L1‐spaces

We investigate the large time behavior of solutions to the spatially homogeneous linear Boltzmann equation from a semigroup viewpoint. Our analysis is performed in some (weighted) L¹‐spaces. We deal with both the cases of hard and soft potentials (with angular cut‐off). For hard potentials, we provide a new proof of the fact that, in weighted L¹‐spaces with exponential or algebraic weights, the solutions converge exponentially fast towards equilibrium. Our approach uses weak‐compactness arguments combined with recent results of the second author on positive semigroups in L¹‐spaces. For soft potentials, in L¹‐spaces, we exploit the convergence to ergodic projection for perturbed substochastic semigroup to show that, for very general initial datum, solutions to the linear Boltzmann equation converges to equilibrium in large time. Moreover, for a large class of initial data, we also prove that the convergence rate is at least algebraic. Notice that, for soft potentials, no exponential rate of convergence is expected because of the absence of spectral gap.     

Uniform decay rates for the energy of weakly damped defocusing semilinear Schrödinger equations with inhomogeneous Dirichlet boundary control

In this paper, we study the open loop stabilization as well as the existence and regularity of solutions of the weakly damped defocusing semilinear Schrödinger equation with an inhomogeneous Dirichlet boundary control. First of all, we prove the global existence of weak solutions at the H¹-energy level together with the stabilization in the same sense. It is then deduced that the decay rate of the boundary data controls the decay rate of the solutions up to an exponential rate. Secondly, we prove some regularity and stabilization results for the strong solutions in H²-sense. The proof uses the direct multiplier method combined with monotonicity and compactness techniques. The result for weak solutions is strong in the sense that it is independent of the dimension of the domain, the power of the nonlinearity, and the smallness of the initial data. However, the regularity and stabilization of strong solutions are obtained only in low dimensions with small initial and boundary data.     

Weighted norm inequalities, Gaussian bounds and sharp spectral multipliers

Let L be a non-negative self-adjoint operator acting on L²(X) where X is a space of homogeneous type. Assume that L generates a holomorphic semigroup e−tL whose kernels pt(x,y) have Gaussian upper bounds but there is no assumption on the regularity in variables x and y. In this article, we study weighted Lp-norm inequalities for spectral multipliers of L. We show that sharp weighted Hörmander-type spectral multiplier theorems follow from Gaussian heat kernel bounds and appropriate L² estimates of the kernels of the spectral multipliers. These results are applicable to spectral multipliers for large classes of operators including Laplace operators acting on Lie groups of polynomial growth or irregular non-doubling domains of Euclidean spaces, elliptic operators on compact manifolds and Schrödinger operators with non-negative potentials.     

Stationary solutions of the Navier-Stokes equations in the spaces L p (ℝ n )

We study the existence and regularity of solutions of the stationary Navier-Stokes system in the spaces L _p (? ⁿ ). The use of the theory of multipliers of the Fourier transform permits one to single out a class of spaces in which there exists a unique “small” solution. We study the regularity of solutions in these spaces without the smallness assumption.     

<Emphasis Type="Italic">C</Emphasis><Superscript>∞</Superscript> regularity of solutions of the Levi equation in<Emphasis Type="Italic">R</Emphasis><Superscript><Emphasis Type="Italic">2n+1</Emphasis></Superscript>

We study the regularity of the solutions of the Levi equation in ?²ⁿ⁺¹. It is a second order quasilinear equation whose characteristic matrix is positive semidefinite and has vanishing determinant at every point and for every functionu∈C ². We show that the operator associated to the equation can be represented as a sum of squares of non linear vector fields. Then, by using a freezing method, we prove theC ^∞ regularity of the solutions.     

Behaviors of solutions for a singular diffusion equation

This paper is devoted to some behaviors of solutions of the initial-boundary problem for a singular diffusion equation, namely, localization and large time behavior. After given some special explicit solutions it is proved that solutions of the problem possess the localization property. Next, L² decay estimate as t→∞ is proved by a rather standard energy method. Finally, by comparison with a special solution the expected L^∞ decay estimate is derived.     

Partial regularity of suitable weak solutions to the incompressible magnetohydrodynamic equations

In this paper, we study the local behavior of the solutions to the three-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic equations. we are interested in both the uniform gradient estimates for smooth solutions and regularity of weak solutions. It is shown that, in some neighborhood of (x₀,t₀), the gradients of the velocity field u and the magnetic field B are locally uniformly bounded in L^∞ norm as long as that either the scaled local L²-norm of the gradient or the scaled local total energy of the velocity field is small, and the scaled local total energy of the magnetic field is uniformly bounded. These estimates indicate that the velocity field plays a more dominant role than that of the magnetic field in the regularity theory. As an immediately corollary we can derive an estimates of Hausdorff dimension on the possible singular set of a suitable weak solution as in the case of pure fluid. Various partial regularity results are obtained as consequences of our blow-up estimates.     

A note on the regularity criteria for the Navier-Stokes equations

We consider the regularity problem for 3D Navier-Stokes equations in a bounded domain with smooth boundary. A new sufficient condition which guarantees the regularity of weak solutions on the quotient ∇p/(1+|u|^δ₁+|∇u|^δ₂) for the Navier-Stokes equations is established.     

A remark on regularity of 1D compressible isentropic Navier-Stokes equations with density-dependent viscosity

In this paper, we consider one-dimensional compressible isentropic Navier-Stokes equations with the viscosity depending on density and with the free boundary. The viscosity coefficient μ is proportional to ρθ with θ>0, where ρ is the density. The existence, uniqueness, regularity of global weak solutions in H¹([0,1]) have been established by Xin and Yao in [Z. Xin, Z. Yao, The existence, uniqueness and regularity for one-dimensional compressible Navier-Stokes equations, preprint]. Furthermore, under certain assumptions imposed on the initial data, we improve the regularity result obtained in [Z. Xin, Z. Yao, The existence, uniqueness and regularity for one-dimensional compressible Navier-Stokes equations, preprint] by driving some new a priori estimates.     

Existence and Regularity of Solutions to Model for Liquid Mixture of He-He

Existence and regularity of solutions to model for liquid mixture of ³He-⁴He is considered in this paper. First, it is proved that this system possesses a unique global weak solution in H¹(ω,C×R) by using Galerkin method. Secondly, by using an iteration procedure, regularity estimates for the linear semigroups, it is proved that the model for liquid mixture of ³He-⁴He has a unique solution in H^k(ω,C×R) for all k ≥ 1.     

The 2D Boussinesq equations with vertical viscosity and vertical diffusivity

This paper aims at the global regularity of classical solutions to the 2D Boussinesq equations with vertical dissipation and vertical thermal diffusion. We prove that the Lr-norm of the vertical velocity v for any 1<r<∞ is globally bounded and that the L^∞-norm of v controls any possible breakdown of classical solutions. In addition, we show that an extra thermal diffusion given by the fractional Laplace δ(−Δ) for δ>0 would guarantee the global regularity of classical solutions.     

The traces of Bessel potentials on regular subsets of Carnot groups

We prove the direct theorem on the traces of the Bessel potentials L _p ^α defined on a Carnot group, on the regular closed subsets called Ahlfors d-sets. The result is convertible for integer α, i.e., for the Sobolev spaces W _p ^α (the converse trace theorem was proven in [24]). This theorem generalizes A. Johnsson and H. Wallin’s results [13] for Sobolev functions and Bessel potentials on the Euclidean space.     

Maximal regularity, the local inverse function theorem, and local well-posedness for the curve shortening flow

Local well-posedness of the curve shortening flow, that is, local existence, uniqueness and smooth dependence of solutions on initial data, is proved by applying the Local Inverse Function Theorem and L ²-maximal regularity results for linear parabolic equations. The application of the Local Inverse Function Theorem leads to a particularly short proof which gives in addition the space-time regularity of the solutions. The method may be applied to general nonlinear evolution equations, but is presented in the special situation only.     

Linear Restriction Estimates for Schrödinger Equation on Metric Cones

In this paper, we study some modified linear restriction estimates of the dynamics generated by Schrödinger operator on metric cone M, where the metric cone M is of the form M = (0, ∞) _r  × Σ, with the cross section Σ being a compact (n ? 1)-dimensional Riemannian manifold (Σ, h) and the equipped metric being g = dr ² + r ² h. Assuming the initial data possesses additional regularity in angular variable θ ∈ Σ, we show some linear restriction estimates for the solutions. In terms of their applications, we obtain global-in-time Strichartz estimates for radial initial data and show small initial data scattering theory for the mass-critical nonlinear Schrödinger equation on two-dimensional metric cones.     

Regularity of solutions to the liquid crystal flows with rough initial data

In this paper, we are concerned with the regularity of solutions to the liquid crystal flows with rough initial data in Rⁿ$R^n$. We prove that the solution constructed by Wang (2011) in [23] has higher regularity. Moreover we obtain a decay estimate in time for any space derivative.     

A PDE approach to regularity of solutions to finite horizon optimal switching problems

We study optimal 2-switching and n-switching problems and the corresponding system of variational inequalities. We obtain results on the existence of viscosity solutions for the 2-switching problem for various setups when the cost of switching is non-deterministic. For the n-switching problem we obtain regularity results for the solutions of the variational inequalities. The solutions are C^1,1-regular away for the free boundaries of the action sets.     

Domain perturbations and estimates for the solutions of second order elliptic equations

We study the dependence of the variational solution of the inhomogeneous Dirichlet problem for a second order elliptic equation with respect to perturbations of the domain. We prove optimal L² and energy estimates for the difference of two solutions in two open sets in terms of the “distance” between them and suitable geometrical parameters which are related to the regularity of their boundaries. We derive such estimates when at least one of the involved sets is uniformly Lipschitz: due to the connection of this problem with the regularity properties of the solutions in the L² family of Sobolev–Besov spaces, the Lipschitz class is the reasonably weakest one compatible with the optimal estimates.     

Periodic solutions of a nonlinear propagation equation via a fixed point argument

In this work the initial value problem for the equation $$u_t + \beta u_x + yf(u)_x - \delta u_{xxt} = g,\forall x \in R, \forall t \in [0,T],$$ with periodic boundary conditions is interpreted in the sense of periodic distributions and studied via fixed point arguments. Weak solutions exist iff∈C ⁰ (R) andg∈L ^∞(L ²(0,1)). Moreover, regularity inf, g and the initial data implies regularity of solutions.     

Continuous Dependence Estimates for Viscosity Solutions of Fully Nonlinear Degenerate Parabolic Equations

Using the maximum principle for semicontinuous functions (Differential Integral Equations3 (1990), 1001-1014; Bull. Amer. Math. Soc. (N.S)27 (1992), 1-67), we establish a general “continuous dependence on the non- linearities” estimate for viscosity solutions of fully nonlinear degenerate parabolic equations with time- and space-dependent nonlinearities. Our result generalizes a result by Souganidis (J. Differential Equations56 (1985), 345-390) for first- order Hamilton-Jacobi equations and a recent result by Cockburn et al. (J. Differential Equations170 (2001), 180-187) for a class of degenerate parabolic second-order equations. We apply this result to a rather general class of equations and obtain: (i) Explicit continuous dependence estimates. (ii) L^∞ and Hölder regularity estimates. (iii) A rate of convergence for the vanishing viscosity method. Finally, we illustrate results (i)-(iii) on the Hamilton-Jacobi- Bellman partial differential equation associated with optimal control of a degenerate diffusion process over a finite horizon. For this equation such results are usually derived via probabilistic arguments, which we avoid entirely here.