On uniqueness techniques for degenerate convection-diffusion problems

International audienceWe survey recent developments and give some new results concerning uniqueness of weak and renormalized solutions for degenerate parabolic problems of the form u_t-\div\, (a_0(\Grad w)+F(w))=f, $u\in \beta(w)$ for a maximal monotone graph $\beta$, a Leray-Lions type nonlinearity $a_0$, a continuous convection flux $F$, and an initial condition $u|_{t=0}=u_0$. The main difficulty lies in taking boundary conditions into account. Here we consider Dirichlet or Neumann boundary conditions or the case of the problem in the whole space. We avoid the degeneracy that could make the problem hyperbolic in some regions; yet our starting point is the notion of entropy solution, notion that underlies the theory of general hyperbolic-parabolic-elliptic problems. Thus, we focus on techniques that are compatible with hyperbolic degeneracy, but here they serve to treat only the ''parabolic-elliptic aspects''. We revisit the derivation of entropy inequalities inside the domain and up to the boundary; technique of ''going to the boundary'' in the Kato inequality for comparison of two solutions; uniqueness for renormalized solutions obtained via reduction to weak solutions. On several occasions, the results are achieved thanks to the notion of integral solution coming from the nonlinear semigroup theory

Degenerate parabolic equation with zero flux boundary condition and its approximations

We study a degenerate parabolic-hyperbolic equation with zero flux boundary condition. The aim of this paper is to prove convergence of numerical approximate solutions towards the unique entropy solution. We propose an implicit finite volume scheme on admissible mesh. We establish fundamental estimates and prove that the approximate solution converge towards an entropy-process solution. Contrarily to the case of Dirichlet conditions, in zero-flux problem unnatural boundary regularity of the flux is required to establish that entropy-process solution is the unique entropy solution. In the study of well-posedness of the problem, tools of nonlinear semigroup theory (stationary, mild and integral solutions) were used in [Andreianov, Gazibo, ZAMP, 2013] in order to overcome this difficulty. Indeed, in some situations including the one-dimensional setting, solutions of the stationary problem enjoy additional boundary regularity. Here, similar arguments are developed based on the new notion of integral-process solution that we introduce for this purpose.Comment: 41 page

L1L^1 contraction for bounded (non-integrable) solutions of degenerate parabolic equations

We obtain new $L^1$ contraction results for bounded entropy solutions of Cauchy problems for degenerate parabolic equations. The equations we consider have possibly strongly degenerate local or non-local diffusion terms. As opposed to previous results, our results apply without any integrability assumption on the %(the positive part of the difference of) solutions. They take the form of partial Duhamel formulas and can be seen as quantitative extensions of finite speed of propagation local $L^1$ contraction results for scalar conservation laws. A key ingredient in the proofs is a new and non-trivial construction of a subsolution of a fully non-linear (dual) equation. Consequences of our results are maximum and comparison principles, new a priori estimates, and in the non-local case, new existence and uniqueness results

Well-posedness results for triply nonlinear degenerate parabolic equations

We study the well-posedness of triply nonlinear degenerate elliptic-parabolic-hyperbolic problem $$b(u)_t - {\rm div} \tilde{\mathfrak a}(u,\nabla\phi(u))+\psi(u)=f, \quad u|_{t=0}=u_0$$ in a bounded domain with homogeneous Dirichlet boundary conditions. The nonlinearities $b,\phi$ and $\psi$ are supposed to be continuous non-decreasing, and the nonlinearity $\tilde{\mathfrak a}$ falls within the Leray-Lions framework. Some restrictions are imposed on the dependence of $\tilde{\mathfrak a}(u,\nabla\phi(u))$ on $u$ and also on the set where $\phi$ degenerates. A model case is $\tilde{\mathfrak a}(u,\nabla\phi(u)) =\tilde{\mathfrak{f}}(b(u),\psi(u),\phi(u))+k(u)\mathfrak{a}_0(\nabla\phi(u)),$ with $\phi$ which is strictly increasing except on a locally finite number of segments, and $\mathfrak{a}_0$ which is of the Leray-Lions kind. We are interested in existence, uniqueness and stability of entropy solutions. If $b=\mathrm{Id}$, we obtain a general continuous dependence result on data $u_0,f$ and nonlinearities $b,\psi,\phi,\tilde{\mathfrak{a}}$. Similar result is shown for the degenerate elliptic problem which corresponds to the case of $b\equiv 0$ and general non-decreasing surjective $\psi$. Existence, uniqueness and continuous dependence on data $u_0,f$ are shown when $[b+\psi](\R)=\R$ and $\phi\circ [b+\psi]^{-1}$ is continuous

Continuous dependence estimate for a degenerate parabolic-hyperbolic equation with Levy noise

In this article, we are concerned with a multidimensional degenerate parabolic-hyperbolic equation driven by Levy processes. Using bounded variation (BV) estimates for vanishing viscosity approximations, we derive an explicit continuous dependence estimate on the nonlinearities of the entropy solutions under the assumption that Levy noise depends only on the solution. This result is used to show the error estimate for the stochastic vanishing viscosity method. In addition, we establish fractional BV estimate for vanishing viscosity approximations in case the noise coefficients depend on both the solution and spatial variable.Comment: 31 Pages. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1502.0249

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

A theory of L1L^1-dissipative solvers for scalar conservation laws with discontinuous flux

We propose a general framework for the study of $L^1$ contractive semigroups of solutions to conservation laws with discontinuous flux. Developing the ideas of a number of preceding works we claim that the whole admissibility issue is reduced to the selection of a family of "elementary solutions", which are certain piecewise constant stationary weak solutions. We refer to such a family as a "germ". It is well known that (CL) admits many different $L^1$ contractive semigroups, some of which reflects different physical applications. We revisit a number of the existing admissibility (or entropy) conditions and identify the germs that underly these conditions. We devote specific attention to the anishing viscosity" germ, which is a way to express the "$\Gamma$-condition" of Diehl. For any given germ, we formulate "germ-based" admissibility conditions in the form of a trace condition on the flux discontinuity line $x=0$ (in the spirit of Vol'pert) and in the form of a family of global entropy inequalities (following Kruzhkov and Carrillo). We characterize those germs that lead to the $L^1$-contraction property for the associated admissible solutions. Our approach offers a streamlined and unifying perspective on many of the known entropy conditions, making it possible to recover earlier uniqueness results under weaker conditions than before, and to provide new results for other less studied problems. Several strategies for proving the existence of admissible solutions are discussed, and existence results are given for fluxes satisfying some additional conditions. These are based on convergence results either for the vanishing viscosity method (with standard viscosity or with specific viscosities "adapted" to the choice of a germ), or for specific germ-adapted finite volume schemes

Explicit formulation for the Dirichlet problem for parabolic-hyperbolic conservation laws

We revisit the Cauchy-Dirichlet problem for degenerate parabolic scalar conservation laws. We suggest a new notion of strong entropy solution. It gives a straightforward explicit characterization of the boundary values of the solution and of the flux, and leads to a concise and natural uniqueness proof, compared to the one of the fundamental work [J. Carrillo, Arch. Ration. Mech. Anal., 1999]. Moreover, general dissipative boundary conditions can be studied in the same framework. The definition makes sense under the specific weak trace-regularity assumption. Despite the lack of evidence that generic solutions are trace-regular (especially in space dimension larger than one), the strong entropy formulation may be useful for modeling and numerical purposes