An Optimal Control Derivation of Nonlinear Smoothing Equations

The purpose of this paper is to review and highlight some connections between the problem of nonlinear smoothing and optimal control of the Liouville equation. The latter has been an active area of recent research interest owing to work in mean-field games and optimal transportation theory. The nonlinear smoothing problem is considered here for continuous-time Markov processes. The observation process is modeled as a nonlinear function of a hidden state with an additive Gaussian measurement noise. A variational formulation is described based upon the relative entropy formula introduced by Newton and Mitter. The resulting optimal control problem is formulated on the space of probability distributions. The Hamilton's equation of the optimal control are related to the Zakai equation of nonlinear smoothing via the log transformation. The overall procedure is shown to generalize the classical Mortensen's minimum energy estimator for the linear Gaussian problem.Comment: 7 pages, 0 figures, under peer reviewin

Quadratic Mean Field Games

Mean field games were introduced independently by J-M. Lasry and P-L. Lions, and by M. Huang, R.P. Malham\'e and P. E. Caines, in order to bring a new approach to optimization problems with a large number of interacting agents. The description of such models split in two parts, one describing the evolution of the density of players in some parameter space, the other the value of a cost functional each player tries to minimize for himself, anticipating on the rational behavior of the others. Quadratic Mean Field Games form a particular class among these systems, in which the dynamics of each player is governed by a controlled Langevin equation with an associated cost functional quadratic in the control parameter. In such cases, there exists a deep relationship with the non-linear Schr\"odinger equation in imaginary time, connexion which lead to effective approximation schemes as well as a better understanding of the behavior of Mean Field Games. The aim of this paper is to serve as an introduction to Quadratic Mean Field Games and their connexion with the non-linear Schr\"odinger equation, providing to physicists a good entry point into this new and exciting field.Comment: 62 pages, 4 figure

Approximated Lax Pairs for the Reduced Order Integration of Nonlinear Evolution Equations

A reduced-order model algorithm, called ALP, is proposed to solve nonlinear evolution partial differential equations. It is based on approximations of generalized Lax pairs. Contrary to other reduced-order methods, like Proper Orthogonal Decomposition, the basis on which the solution is searched for evolves in time according to a dynamics specific to the problem. It is therefore well-suited to solving problems with progressive front or wave propagation. Another difference with other reduced-order methods is that it is not based on an off-line / on-line strategy. Numerical examples are shown for the linear advection, KdV and FKPP equations, in one and two dimensions

On the stochastic Strichartz estimates and the stochastic nonlinear Schr\"odinger equation on a compact riemannian manifold

We prove the existence and the uniqueness of a solution to the stochastic NSLE on a two-dimensional compact riemannian manifold. Thus we generalize a recent work by Burq, G\'erard and Tzvetkov in the deterministic setting, and a series of papers by de Bouard and Debussche, who have examined similar questions in the case of the flat euclidean space with random perturbation. We prove the existence and the uniqueness of a local maximal solution to stochastic nonlinear Schr\"odinger equations with multiplicative noise on a compact d-dimensional riemannian manifold. Under more regularity on the noise, we prove that the solution is global when the nonlinearity is of defocusing or of focusing type, d=2 and the initial data belongs to the finite energy space. Our proof is based on improved stochastic Strichartz inequalities

Extreme event quantification in dynamical systems with random components

A central problem in uncertainty quantification is how to characterize the impact that our incomplete knowledge about models has on the predictions we make from them. This question naturally lends itself to a probabilistic formulation, by making the unknown model parameters random with given statistics. Here this approach is used in concert with tools from large deviation theory (LDT) and optimal control to estimate the probability that some observables in a dynamical system go above a large threshold after some time, given the prior statistical information about the system's parameters and/or its initial conditions. Specifically, it is established under which conditions such extreme events occur in a predictable way, as the minimizer of the LDT action functional. It is also shown how this minimization can be numerically performed in an efficient way using tools from optimal control. These findings are illustrated on the examples of a rod with random elasticity pulled by a time-dependent force, and the nonlinear Schr\"odinger equation (NLSE) with random initial conditions

Optimal distributed control of a stochastic Cahn-Hilliard equation

We study an optimal distributed control problem associated to a stochastic Cahn-Hilliard equation with a classical double-well potential and Wiener multiplicative noise, where the control is represented by a source-term in the definition of the chemical potential. By means of probabilistic and analytical compactness arguments, existence of an optimal control is proved. Then the linearized system and the corresponding backward adjoint system are analysed through monotonicity and compactness arguments, and first-order necessary conditions for optimality are proved.Comment: Key words and phrases: stochastic Cahn-Hilliard equation, phase separation, optimal control, linearized state system, adjoint state system, first-order optimality condition

Analysis of a splitting scheme for a class of nonlinear stochastic Schr\uf6dinger equations

We analyze the qualitative properties and the order of convergence of a splitting scheme for a class of nonlinear stochastic Schr\uf6dinger equations driven by additive It\uf4 noise. The class of nonlinearities of interest includes nonlocal interaction cubic nonlinearities. We show that the numerical solution is symplectic and preserves the expected mass for all times. On top of that, for the convergence analysis, some exponential moment bounds for the exact and numerical solutions are proved. This enables us to provide strong orders of convergence as well as orders of convergence in probability and almost surely. Finally, extensive numerical experiments illustrate the performance of the proposed numerical scheme