On some elliptic and parabolic equations related to growth models (Q1713007)

This paper contains several results on mathematical problems related to models of growth phenomena. In particular, the author considers the Kardar-Pasisi-Zhang model \[ \begin{cases} u_t-\Delta u=|\nabla u|^2+f(x,t), \quad &\text{in }\Omega \times (0,+\infty),\\ u(x,t)=0, \quad& \text{on } \partial\Omega \times (0,+\infty),\\ u(x,0)=u_0(x),\quad &\text{in }\Omega, \end{cases}\tag{1} \] where \(\Omega\) is a smooth bounded domain and \(f,u_0\) are positive functions. First, the author investigates the stationary case of this problem, that is \[ \begin{cases} -\Delta u=|\nabla u|^2+\lambda f(x), \quad &\text{in } \Omega \times (0,+\infty),\\ u=0,\quad &\text{on } \partial\Omega \times (0,+\infty)\end{cases}\tag{2} \] and establishes existence, nonexistence and uniqueness results (in dependence of the values of the parameter \(\lambda\)) of solutions \(u\) satisfying the regularity condition \(e^u-1\in W_0^{1,2}(\Omega)\). This is performed by means of the change of variable \(v=e^u-1\) which turns problem \((1)\) into the following \[ \begin{cases} -\Delta v=\lambda f(x)(v+1) \quad &\text{in }\Omega,\\ v=0\quad &\text{on }\partial\Omega. \end{cases} \] which has a variational structure. The author also considers solutions \(u\) with the weaker regularity \(u\in W_0^{1,2}(\Omega)\) and proves that \(v=e^u-1\) satisfies certain regularity properties and the equation \( -\Delta v=\lambda f(x)(v+1)+\mu_s\) in \(\mathcal{D}'(\Omega)\), where \(\mu_s\) is a suitable measure concentrated on a set of zero capacity. This result is then used to study the existence of such solutions. Next the author considers the problem \[ \begin{cases} -\Delta u=\beta(u)|\nabla u|^2+\lambda f(x) \quad &\text{in }\Omega\\ u=0\quad &\text{on }\partial\Omega \end{cases}\tag{3} \] where \(\beta:[0,+\infty)\rightarrow [0,+\infty)\) is a continuous nondecreasing function with \(\beta(t)\rightarrow+\infty\) as \(t\rightarrow+\infty\), and proves existence, nonexistence and multiplicity of positive solutions \(u\) (in dependence of the values of \(\lambda\)) satisfying the regularity condition \(\Psi(u)\in W_0^{1,2}(\Omega)\), where \(\Psi(t)=\int_0^te^{\int_0^\tau \beta(s)ds}d\tau\). Moreover, regularity of \(W_0^{1,2}(\Omega)\)-solutions of this problem are also studied. In the second section, the author extends to the parabolic case (1) the results proved in the first section for the stationary case. In particular, as a consequence of a correspondence between the solutions of problem \((1)\) and the solutions of a linear evolutionary problem with measure data, the author derives the existence of infinitely many solutions with prescribed singularities satisfying an exponential regularity. Similar results are also obtained for the parabolic case of problem \((3)\). In the third section, the author considers the more general model \[ \begin{cases} u_t-\Delta u^m=|\nabla u|^q+f(x,t) \quad &\text{in }\Omega \times (0,+\infty)\\ u(x,t)=0\quad &\text{on } \partial\Omega \times (0,+\infty)\\ u(x,0)=u_0(x) \quad &\text{in } \Omega, \end{cases}\tag{4} \] where \(m>0\) and \(q\in (0,2]\). For \(m>1\), problem \((4)\) is a model of growth in a porous media. As for problem \((1)\), first the author studies the existence/nonexistence/multiplicity of solutions for the stationary case of problem \((4)\) (with \(f(x,t)\) replaced by \(\lambda f(x)\)) in dependence of the regularity of the datum \(f\) and the values of the parameters \(m,q,\lambda\). Next the author considers the evolutionary case and establishes some related existence and multiplicity results of distributional solutions. In the last section, the authors considers the problem \[ \begin{cases} u_t-\Delta^2 u=\text{det}(D^2 u)+\lambda f(x) \quad &\text{in }\Omega \times (0,+\infty)\\ \text{boundary conditions}\quad &\text{on } \partial\Omega,\\ u(x,0)=u_0(x)\quad &\text{in } \Omega, \end{cases}\tag{5} \] which represents a fourth order model for epitaxial crystal growth. Similar to the previous problems, the author establishes existence, uniqueness and multiplicity results for problem \((5)\) both for the stationary and the evolutionary case. For \(\lambda=0\), the asymptotic behavior of solutions in the evolutionary case is also studied. In particular, conditions for the global existence as well as for finite blow-up of the solutions are given. The contents of this paper are that of the course that the author delivered in the C.I.M.E. program from 2nd to 6th of June, 2014, at Cetraro, Italy. For the entire collection see [Zbl 1403.35008].