Optimal control of an Allen-Cahn equation with singular potentials and dynamic boundary condition

In this paper, we investigate optimal control problems for Allen-Cahn equations with singular nonlinearities and a dynamic boundary condition involving singular nonlinearities and the Laplace-Beltrami operator. The approach covers both the cases of distributed controls and of boundary controls. The cost functional is of standard tracking type, and box constraints for the controls are prescribed. Parabolic problems with nonlinear dynamic boundary conditions involving the Laplace-Beltrami operation have recently drawn increasing attention due to their importance in applications, while their optimal control was apparently never studied before. In this paper, we first extend known well-posedness and regularity results for the state equation and then show the existence of optimal controls and that the control-to-state mapping is twice continuously Fr\'echet differentiable between appropriate function spaces. Based on these results, we establish the first-order necessary optimality conditions in terms of a variational inequality and the adjoint state equation, and we prove second-order sufficient optimality conditions.Comment: Key words: optimal control; parabolic problems; dynamic boundary conditions; optimality condition

A new type of identification problems: optimizing the fractional order in a nonlocal evolution equation

In this paper, we consider a rather general linear evolution equation of fractional type, namely a diffusion type problem in which the diffusion operator is the $s$th power of a positive definite operator having a discrete spectrum in $\R^+$. We prove existence, uniqueness and differentiability properties with respect to the fractional parameter $s$. These results are then employed to derive existence as well as first-order necessary and second-order sufficient optimality conditions for a minimization problem, which is inspired by considerations in mathematical biology. In this problem, the fractional parameter $s$ serves as the "control parameter" that needs to be chosen in such a way as to minimize a given cost functional. This problem constitutes a new class of identification problems: while usually in identification problems the type of the differential operator is prescribed and one or several of its coefficient functions need to be identified, in the present case one has to determine the type of the differential operator itself. This problem exhibits the inherent analytical difficulty that with changing fractional parameter $s$ also the domain of definition, and thus the underlying function space, of the fractional operator changes

A boundary control problem for the viscous Cahn-Hilliard equation with dynamic boundary conditions

A boundary control problem for the viscous Cahn-Hilliard equations with possibly singular potentials and dynamic boundary conditions is studied and first order necessary conditions for optimality are proved. Key words: Cahn-Hilliard equation, dynamic boundary conditions, phase separation, singular potentials, optimal control, optimality conditions, adjoint state syste

Optimal distributed control of a generalized fractional Cahn-Hilliard system

In the recent paper `Well-posedness and regularity for a generalized fractional Cahn-Hilliard system' (arXiv:1804.11290) by the same authors, general well-posedness results have been established for a a class of evolutionary systems of two equations having the structure of a viscous Cahn-Hilliard system, in which nonlinearities of double-well type occur. The operators appearing in the system equations are fractional versions in the spectral sense of general linear operators A,B having compact resolvents, which are densely defined, unbounded, selfadjoint, and monotone in a Hilbert space of functions defined in a smooth domain. In this work we complement the results given in arXiv:1804.11290 by studying a distributed control problem for this evolutionary system. The main difficulty in the analysis is to establish a rigorous Frechet differentiability result for the associated control-to-state mapping. This seems only to be possible if the state stays bounded, which, in turn, makes it necessary to postulate an additional global boundedness assumption. One typical situation, in which this assumption is satisfied, arises when B is the negative Laplacian with zero Dirichlet boundary conditions and the nonlinearity is smooth with polynomial growth of at most order four. Also a case with logarithmic nonlinearity can be handled. Under the global boundedness assumption, we establish existence and first-order necessary optimality conditions for the optimal control problem in terms of a variational inequality and the associated adjoint state system.Comment: Key words: fractional operators, Cahn-Hilliard systems, optimal control, necessary optimality condition

Optimal control of a phase field system of Caginalp type with fractional operators

In their recent work `Well-posedness, regularity and asymptotic analyses for a fractional phase field system' (Asymptot. Anal. 114 (2019), 93-128; see also the preprint arXiv:1806.04625), two of the present authors have studied phase field systems of Caginalp type, which model nonconserved, nonisothermal phase transitions and in which the occurring diffusional operators are given by fractional versions in the spectral sense of unbounded, monotone, selfadjoint, linear operators having compact resolvents. In this paper, we complement this analysis by investigating distributed optimal control problems for such systems. It is shown that the associated control-to-state operator is Fr\'echet differentiable between suitable Banach spaces, and meaningful first-order necessary optimality conditions are derived in terms of a variational inequality and the associated adjoint state variables.Comment: 38 pages. Key words: fractional operators, phase field system, nonconserved phase transition, optimal control, first-order necessary optimality condition

Pavel Krejčí turns sixty and receives the Bernard Bolzano Honorary Medal for Merit in Mathematical Sciences

summary:The recent development of mathematical methods of investigation of problems with hysteresis has shown that the structure of the hysteresis memory plays a substantial role. In this paper we characterize the hysteresis operators which exhibit a memory effect of the Preisach type (memory preserving operators). We investigate their properties (continuity, invertibility) and we establish some relations between special classes of such operators (Preisach, Ishlinskii and Nemytskii operators). For a general memory preserving operator we derive an energy inequality

On a Cahn-Hilliard system with convection and dynamic boundary conditions

This paper deals with an initial and boundary value problem for a system coupling equation and boundary condition both of Cahn-Hilliard type; an additional convective term with a forced velocity field, which could act as a control on the system, is also present in the equation. Either regular or singular potentials are admitted in the bulk and on the boundary. Both the viscous and pure Cahn-Hilliard cases are investigated, and a number of results is proven about existence of solutions, uniqueness, regularity, continuous dependence, uniform boundedness of solutions, strict separation property. A complete approximation of the problem, based on the regularization of maximal monotone graphs and the use of a Faedo-Galerkin scheme, is introduced and rigorously discussed.Comment: Key words: Cahn-Hilliard system, convection, dynamic boundary condition, initial-boundary value problem, well-posedness, regularity of solution

On an application of Tikhonov's fixed point theorem to a nonlocal Cahn-Hilliard type system modeling phase separation

This paper investigates a nonlocal version of a model for phase separation on an atomic lattice that was introduced by P. Podio-Guidugli in Ric. Mat. 55 (2006) 105-118. The model consists of an initial-boundary value problem for a nonlinearly coupled system of two partial differential equations governing the evolution of an order parameter and the chemical potential. Singular contributions to the local free energy in the form of logarithmic or double-obstacle potentials are admitted. In contrast to the local model, which was studied by P. Podio-Guidugli and the present authors in a series of recent publications, in the nonlocal case the equation governing the evolution of the order parameter contains in place of the Laplacian a nonlocal expression that originates from nonlocal contributions to the free energy and accounts for possible long-range interactions between the atoms. It is shown that just as in the local case the model equations are well posed, where the technique of proving existence is entirely different: it is based on an application of Tikhonov's fixed point theorem in a rather unusual separable and reflexive Banach space.Comment: The paper is dedicated to our friend Paolo Podio-Guidugli on the occasion of his 75th birthday with best wishe

On the longtime behavior of a viscous Cahn-Hilliard system with convection and dynamic boundary conditions

In this paper, we study the longtime asymptotic behavior of a phase separation process occurring in a three-dimensional domain containing a fluid flow of given velocity. This process is modeled by a viscous convective Cahn-Hilliard system, which consists of two nonlinearly coupled second-order partial differential equations for the unknown quantities, the chemical potential and an order parameter representing the scaled density of one of the phases. In contrast to other contributions, in which zero Neumann boundary conditions were are assumed for both the chemical potential and the order parameter, we consider the case of dynamic boundary conditions, which model the situation when another phase transition takes place on the boundary. The phase transition processes in the bulk and on the boundary are driven by free energies functionals that may be nondifferentiable and have derivatives only in the sense of (possibly set-valued) subdifferentials. For the resulting initial-boundary value system of Cahn-Hilliard type, general well-posedness results have been established in a recent contribution by the same authors. In the present paper, we investigate the asymptotic behavior of the solutions as times approaches infinity. More precisely, we study the $\omega$-limit (in a suitable topology) of every solution trajectory. Under the assumptions that the viscosity coefficients are strictly positive and that at least one of the underlying free energies is differentiable, we prove that the $\omega$-limit is meaningful and that all of its elements are solutions to the corresponding stationary system, where the component representing the chemical potential is a constant.Comment: Key words: Cahn-Hilliard systems, convection, dynamic boundary conditions, well-posedness, asymptotic behavior, omega-limit. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1704.0533

Deep quench approximation and optimal control of general Cahn-Hilliard systems with fractional operators and double obstacle potentials

The paper arXiv:1804.11290 contains well-posedness and regularity results for a system of evolutionary operator equations having the structure of a Cahn-Hilliard system. The operators appearing in the system equations were fractional versions in the spectral sense of general linear operators A and B having compact resolvents and are densely defined, unbounded, selfadjoint, and monotone in a Hilbert space of functions defined in a smooth domain. The associated double-well potentials driving the phase separation process modeled by the Cahn-Hilliard system could be of a very general type that includes standard physically meaningful cases such as polynomial, logarithmic, and double obstacle nonlinearities. In the subsequent paper arXiv:1807.03218, an analysis of distributed optimal control problems was performed for such evolutionary systems, where only the differentiable case of certain polynomial and logarithmic double-well potentials could be admitted. Results concerning existence of optimizers and first-order necessary optimality conditions were derived. In the present paper, we complement these results by studying a distributed control problem for such evolutionary systems in the case of nondifferentiable nonlinearities of double obstacle type. For such nonlinearities, it is well known that the standard constraint qualifications cannot be applied to construct appropriate Lagrange multipliers. To overcome this difficulty, we follow here the so-called "deep quench" method. We first give a general convergence analysis of the deep quench approximation that includes an error estimate and then demonstrate that its use leads in the double obstacle case to appropriate first-order necessary optimality conditions in terms of a variational inequality and the associated adjoint state system.Comment: Key words: Fractional operators, Cahn-Hilliard systems, optimal control, double obstacles, necessary optimality condition