The utilization of total mass to determine the switching points in the symmetric boundary control problem with a linear reaction term

The authors study the problem , and u(0,t)=u(1,t)=ψ(t), where ψ(t)=u₀ for t2k<t<t2k+1 and ψ(t)=0 for , with t₀=0 and the sequence tk is determined by the equations , for , and , for k=2,4,6,… and where 0<m<M. Note that the switching points , are unknown. Existence and uniqueness are demonstrated. Theoretical estimates of the tk and tk+1−tk are obtained and numerical verifications of the estimates are presented. The case of ux(0,t)=ux(1,t)=ψ(t) is also considered and analyzed.