Optimal spatial harvesting strategy and symmetry-breaking (Q1024722)

The spatio-temporal behavior of a species is modeled by means of the following parabolic initial-boundary value problem: \[ \begin{cases} \displaystyle \frac{\, \partial u \,}{\, \partial t \,} = \varepsilon^2 \, \Delta u + u - u^2 - E(x) \, u, &x \in \Omega,\;t > 0, \\ u(x, t) = 0, &x \in \partial \Omega,\;t > 0, \\ u(x,0) = u_0(x) \geq 0 &x \in \Omega. \end{cases} \] Here \(u(x,t)\) is the density of the species in the bounded, \(n\)-dimensional habitat~\(\Omega\), the diffusion scale~\(\varepsilon\) is a prescribed, positive number, and the initial density \(u_0\) belongs to~\(L^2(\Omega)\). The harvesting effort~\(E(x)\), which may differ geographically, is an unknown of the problem and is assumed to (be measurable and) satisfy \(0 \leq E(x) \leq M\), where \(M\) is the maximum allowable effort. Furthermore, the total harvesting effort is prescribed as follows: \[ \int_\Omega E(x) \, dx = \beta \, |\Omega| \] where \(\beta > 0\) is the (given) average effort. The authors are interested in equilibrium solutions, i.e., solutions \(u(x)\) of \[ \begin{cases} \varepsilon^2 \, \Delta u + u - u^2 - E(x) \, u = 0, &x \in \Omega, \\ u(x) = 0, &x \in \partial \Omega. \end{cases} \] It is known that for every sufficiently small~\(\varepsilon > 0\), and for every~\(E(x)\) as above, there exists a unique positive equilibrium solution~\(u_{\varepsilon,E}\) which is also a minimizer of the energy functional~\(J_{\varepsilon,E}\) associated to the problem. The value \(A_{\varepsilon, E} = J_{\varepsilon,E}(u_{\varepsilon,E})\) is related to the well-being of the species subject to the harvesting~\(E(x)\). More precisely, the smaller is \(A_{\varepsilon, E}\), the higher is the well-being of the species. Hence, the problem is to find \(E(x)\) such that the corresponding \(A_{\varepsilon, E}\) is as small as possible. The main result shows that such an optimal harvesting strategy~\(E_{\varepsilon,*}(x)\) does exist, and has the \textit{bang-bang} property: indeed, \(E_{\varepsilon,*}(x)\) takes identically the value \(0\) on a suitable \(\Omega_0 \subset \Omega\), and \(E_{\varepsilon,*} \equiv M\) outside~\(\Omega_0\). In particular, this provides new evidence of the validity of the no-fishing zone which has been heavily debated. The shape of the set~\(\Omega_0\), which can be represented as \(\Omega_0 = \{\, x \mid u_{\varepsilon,E_{\varepsilon,*}}(x) > t \,\}\) for a convenient~\(t > 0\), is also investigated. It turns out that \(\Omega_0\) inherits Steiner symmetry from~\(\Omega\). Symmetry is shown to break down in the case when \(\Omega\) is a dumbbell, as well as a thin annulus.