Null controllability of linear and semilinear heat equations in thin domains

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Teresa, Luz de | Zuazua, Enrique

Affiliations: Instituto de Matemáticas, UNAM, Circuito Exterior, C.U., 04510, D.F. México E‐mail: [email protected] | Departamento de Matemática Aplicada, Universidad Complutense, 28040 Madrid, Spain E‐mail: [email protected]

Abstract: We consider the linear heat equation with potential in a n‐dimensional thin cilinder Ωε=Ω×(0,ε) where Ω is a bounded open smooth set of $\mathbb{R}^{n-1}$ with n≥2 and ε is a small parameter. We study the null controllability problem when the control acts in a cylindrical region ωε=ω×(0,ε), where ω⊂Ω is an open and non‐empty subset of Ω. We prove that, under appropriate boundary conditions, for a suitable class of potentials the heat equation is uniformly null controllable as ε→0. We also prove the convergence of the controls to a null control for the n−1‐dimensional heat equation in Ω. Similar results are proved for the semilinear heat equation with globally Lipschitz nonlinearities.

Journal: Asymptotic Analysis, vol. 24, no. 3-4, pp. 295-317, 2000