Extremal equilibria for reaction-diffusion equations in bounded domains and applications (Q927645)

In this paper the following problem \[ \begin{gathered} u_t-\Delta u= f(x,u)\quad\text{in }\Omega,\\ u(0)= u_0\text{ with different boundary conditions}\end{gathered}\tag{1} \] is considered, where \(\Omega\subset\mathbb{R}^N\) is a bounded domain, \(f: \Omega\times\mathbb{R}\to\mathbb{R}\) is continuous and locally Lipschitz in \(u\), uniformly in \(x\). The boundary condition is either of the form: \[ u= 0\quad\text{on }\partial\Omega\;(\text{Dirichlet boundary condition}) \] or \[ {\partial u\over\partial\vec n}+ b(x)u= 0\quad\text{on }\partial\Omega\;(\text{Robin boundary condition}) \] with a suitable smooth function \(b\) with no sign condition which includes the case \(b(x)\equiv 0\), or nonlinear form \[ {\partial u\over\partial\vec n}+ b(x)u= g(x,u)\quad\text{on }\partial\Omega, \] with \(g: \partial\Omega\times\mathbb{R}\to\mathbb{R}\) a continuous function and locally Lipschitz uniformly in \(x\in\partial\Omega\). By \(u(t,x; u_0)\) is denoted the solutions of problem (1) and under certain conditions these solutions are smooth enough and globally defined. The main result of the paper states: Theorem 1.1. There exist ordered extremal equilibria \(\varphi_m\) and \(\varphi_M\), minimal and maximal, respectively, in the sense of any other equilibrium, \(\psi\), satisfies \(\varphi_m\leq\psi\leq \varphi_M\). Furthermore, the ordered set \(\{v\in X:\varphi_m\leq v\leq\varphi)_M\}\) uniformly attracts the dynamics of the systems, i.e., \[ \varphi_m(x)\leq\liminf_{t\to\infty}\, u(t,x; u_0)\leq \limsup_{t\to\infty}(t, x; u_0)\leq \varphi_M(x) \] uniformly in \(x\in\Omega\) and for bounded sets of initial data \(u_0\in X\). Moreover, the minimal equilibrium is asymptotically stable from below and maximal one is asymptotically stable from above. Finally, there exists a global attrator \({\mathcal A}\) for problem (1) which satisfies \(\varphi_m\leq{\mathcal A}\leq\varphi_M\) and \(\varphi_m\), \(\varphi_M\in{\mathcal A}\).