The role of surface diffusion in dynamic boundary conditions: where do we stand? (Q901831)

The author considers the following parabolic-reactive-diffusive system \((\mathrm{RDE})_{\delta}\) for \(\delta \geq 0\): \[ \begin{alignedat}{2} & u_t=\nu\;\Delta u-f(u)+\lambda u,\quad & (t,x) \in (0,\infty)\times \Omega,\\ & u_t - \delta \Delta_{\Gamma}u+\nu \partial_{n}u=0,\quad & (t,x) \in (0,\infty)\times \Gamma,\end{alignedat}2 \] where \(\Omega \subset \mathbb{R}^{N}\) is a bounded domain with boundary \(\Sigma\) of class \(C^2\), \(u:[0,\infty) \times \Omega \rightarrow \mathbb{R}\), \(\Delta_{\Gamma}\) is the Laplace-Beltrami operator on \(\Sigma\), \(\nu,\lambda\) are positive constants and \(f:\mathbb{R} \rightarrow \mathbb{R}\) is a continuous function with a locally Lipschitz continuous first derivative satisfying certain growth conditions. The initial condition for this system is \(u(0,x)=u_{0}(x)\) for all \(x \in \overline{\Omega}\). The related elliptic-parabolic system, called \((\mathrm{EE})_{\delta}\) for \(\delta \geq 0\), is also considered. \[ \begin{alignedat}{2} &\nu\;\Delta u-\lambda u = 0,\quad &(t,x) \in (0,\infty)\times \Omega,\\ &u_t +\nu \partial_{n}u=\delta \Delta_{\Gamma}u -g(u),\quad &(t,x) \in (0,\infty)\times \Gamma,\\ &u(0,x)=\psi_{0},\quad & x \in \Gamma.\end{alignedat} \] For both systems, the author investigates the influence of the term \(- \delta \Delta_{\Gamma}u\) on the solutions and the long-time asymptotic behavior for both systems. The large Section 2 contains a detailed study of all spectral properties of a perturbed (\(\lambda>0\)) and unperturbed (\(\lambda=0\)) Wentzel Laplacian, where the spectral problem (\(A_{W}^{\nu,\delta}\varphi=\lambda \varphi\)) is given by \[ \begin{alignedat}{2} & -\nu\;\Delta \varphi +q(x) \varphi = \lambda \varphi,\quad & x \in \Omega,\\ & -\delta \Delta_{\Gamma} \varphi + \nu \partial_{n}\varphi=\lambda \varphi,\quad & x \in \Gamma.\end{alignedat} \] The case \(q \equiv 0\) is also considered. In the third section, using a previous result of the author [J. Nonlinear Sci. 22, No. 1, 85--106 (2012; Zbl 1241.35121)], the existence of a global attractor is proved for the system \((\mathrm{RDE})_{\delta}\) with \(\delta \geq 0\) and the dependence of the fractal dimension of the global attractor is analyzed and a two-sided estimate is derived. The last section refers to the problem \((\mathrm{EE})_{\delta}\). First, the author investigates solvability in the class of weak and strong solutions by considering the parabolic problems \[ \begin{alignedat}{2} &\varepsilon u_t - \nu\;\Delta u+\lambda u = 0,\quad & (t,x) \in (0,\infty)\times \Omega,\\ & u_t +\nu \partial_{n}u=\delta \Delta_{\Gamma}u -g(u),\quad & (t,x) \in (0,\infty)\times \Gamma,\\ & u(0,x)=u_{0},\quad & x \in \Gamma,\end{alignedat} \] with \(\varepsilon \in (0,1]\) being a relaxation parameter. The author gives optimal conditions on the nonlinearity \(g\) that provide the global existence of strong solutions for \((\mathrm{EE})_{\delta}\) (using estimates for solutions of the auxiliary \(\varepsilon\)-systems, data reconstruction techniques and compactness arguments). It is proved that both systems \((\mathrm{EE})_{0}\) and \((\mathrm{EE})_{\delta}\) (\(\delta>0\)) generate dynamical systems on \(L^2(\Gamma)\) with finite-dimensional global attractors. Sharp two-sided estimates for the fractal dimension of the global attractor are also obtained.