Entropy Solution Theory for Fractional Degenerate Convection-Diffusion Equations

We study a class of degenerate convection diffusion equations with a fractional nonlinear diffusion term. These equations are natural generalizations of anomalous diffusion equations, fractional conservations laws, local convection diffusion equations, and some fractional Porous medium equations. In this paper we define weak entropy solutions for this class of equations and prove well-posedness under weak regularity assumptions on the solutions, e.g. uniqueness is obtained in the class of bounded integrable functions. Then we introduce a monotone conservative numerical scheme and prove convergence toward an Entropy solution in the class of bounded integrable functions of bounded variation. We then extend the well-posedness results to non-local terms based on general L\'evy type operators, and establish some connections to fully non-linear HJB equations. Finally, we present some numerical experiments to give the reader an idea about the qualitative behavior of solutions of these equations

Numerical Methods for the Fractional Laplacian: a Finite Difference-quadrature Approach

The fractional Laplacian $(-\Delta)^{\alpha/2}$ is a non-local operator which depends on the parameter $\alpha$ and recovers the usual Laplacian as $\alpha \to 2$. A numerical method for the fractional Laplacian is proposed, based on the singular integral representation for the operator. The method combines finite difference with numerical quadrature, to obtain a discrete convolution operator with positive weights. The accuracy of the method is shown to be $O(h^{3-\alpha})$. Convergence of the method is proven. The treatment of far field boundary conditions using an asymptotic approximation to the integral is used to obtain an accurate method. Numerical experiments on known exact solutions validate the predicted convergence rates. Computational examples include exponentially and algebraically decaying solution with varying regularity. The generalization to nonlinear equations involving the operator is discussed: the obstacle problem for the fractional Laplacian is computed.Comment: 29 pages, 9 figure