Hydrodynamic limit for a zero-range process in the Sierpinski gasket (Q842471)

The author considers the study of the collective behavior of system that is based on a Sierpiński gasket \(K\). The boundary of the resulting set is the graph \(\Gamma_n\) with \(3(3^n+1)/2\) vertices and \(3^{n+1}\) bonds. The system of particles evolves on this graph. The particles are attempting jumps to neighboring sites at rates that depend only on the number of particles sharing the same site -- this is the so-called zero-range process as a process that satisfies the gradient condition, where the current of particles is the gradient of local function (i.e., the interaction rate) and therefore Fick's law is satisfied at a macroscopic level. In this system the sense of the hydrodynamic limit for the zero-range process is based on uniqueness results for the Cauchy problem in \(K\). The classical method that deals with the hydrodynamic limit of gradient systems is based on the one-block and two-block estimates but the last approach does not seem to hold for the Sierpiński gasket, because there are the hot spots, i.e., the sites of the graph that have to be visited in order to connect two different regions of graph. It is not true that the best strategy in order to transport a particle from one site to another is just to follow the shortest part in comparison to the situation in the integer lattice. The paper consists of 5 sections and one Appendix. In Sect. 2 we have the definition of the Laplacian operator in \(K\) and some aspects of the functional analysis on \(K\) are presented; for example the Green function \(G(x,y)\) associated to the Dirichlet Laplacian in \(K\) is defined. The next section gives the definition of a weak solution of the hydrodynamic equation \(\partial_tu=\Delta\phi(u)\) and the proof of the existence and uniqueness of such solutions by considerations of a finite-difference numerical scheme to approximate those solutions. In Sect. 4 we have the introduction of the zero-range process, the \(H_{-1}\)-norm method and the proof of the hydrodynamic limit for such processes relaying on the one-block estimate and suitable properties of the Green function \(G\). In next section the author prove the one-block estimate and the lemmas needed for the derivation of the hydrodynamic limit. In the Appendix the study of \(\Delta_nG(x,y)\) was done where \(\Delta_n\) corresponds to the discrete approximation of \(\Delta\) defined in \(\Gamma_n\). Because the author deals with a graph on which the Green function \(G\) has the worst possible behavior for the used method, the ideas presented in the paper could be adapted to treat general non-homogeneous graphs, like random ones, percolation clusters and disordered lattices. It should be also noted that the Sect. 4 a some kind of oversight appears because this section was finished by the statement, which informs that in the next two sections we will have the proofs of two given lemmas, while these proofs are presented in one, last (fifth) section. However this oversight doesn't seriously influence the view on the whole paper.