Null boundary controllability for semilinear heat equations (Q1900118)

The following initial boundary value problem for a semilinear heat equation is considered: Find \(w(x, t)\) such that \[ \begin{cases} w_t- w_{xx}= f(w, w_x, x)\text{ on } (0, 1)\times (0, \infty),\\ w(0, t)= 0,\;w(1, t)= h(t)\text{ for } t\geq 0,\;w(x, 0)= w_0(x)\text{ for } x\in [0, 1],\end{cases}\tag{1} \] where \(f\) is defined in \(V\times [0, 1]\), where \(V\) is a neighborhood of the origin, is analytic in all arguments, belongs locally to Gevrey class 2 in the first two arguments, varying continuously with respect to \(x\), is Hölder continuous in \(x\), and satisfies \(f(0, 0, x)= 0\), \(\partial_1 f(0, 0, x)= 0\), \(\partial_2 f(0, 0, x)= 0\) for all \(x\in [0, 1]\). The problem of null boundary controllability for (1) is: Given \(T> 0\), is it possible, for every initial data \(w_0\) which is sufficiently small and in appropriate space to find a corresponding controller \(h(t)\) so that the solution of the resulting problem vanishes for \(t\geq T\)? This problem for (1) is solved.