Examples of global attractors in parabolic problems (Q1382782)

The authors consider parabolic systems of the form: \[ u_t=-Au+f(x,u,D^1u, \dots, D^{2m-1} u),\;B_ju=0 \quad\text{for} \quad t>0,\;x\in\Omega, \tag{1} \] \[ j=1, \dots, md \quad \text{and} \quad u(0,x)= u_0(x),\;x\in \partial \Omega, \] with \(\Omega\) a smooth bounded domain, \(u=(u_1, \dots, u_d)\) and \(A\) an elliptic matrix operator of order \(2m\). The \(B_j\) are appropriate boundary operators. On \(A\), \(B_j\), \(\Omega\) and \(f\) two technical conditions \(A1\), \(A2\) are imposed which guarantee that (1) can be cast into an abstract frame which admits semigroup theory and standard existence and uniqueness results. The abstract form subject to the terminology of semiflows and dynamical systems is \[ u_t+ A_pu= F_p(u),\;t>0,\;u(0)= u_0, \tag{2} \] with ``\(p\)'' indicating that (2) is considered on \(L^p (\Omega)^d\). With \(-A_p\) a semigroup generator such that \(re(\sigma (A_p)) \geq\varepsilon >0\), fractional powers \(A^\alpha_p\), \(\alpha\in (0,1)\) are defined and the semiflow \(T_\alpha(t)\) induced by (2) on \(\text{dom}((A^\alpha_p)\), \(\|\;\|_\alpha)\) is introduced. It is the intention of the authors to investigate the existence of so-called restricted gobal attractors which are provided by the following definition. Let a local semiflow \(T(t)\) on \(\text{dom} (A_p^\alpha)\) be given. The set \(S\subseteq \text{dom} (A^\alpha_p)\) is a restricted global attractor for \(T(t)\) on \(\text{dom} (A^\alpha_p)\) iff there is a closed nonempty subset \(V\subseteq \text{dom} (A_p^\alpha)\), which is invariant under \(T(t)\), such that \(T(t)\) is global on \(V\) and such that \(S\) is a global attractor for the restriction of \(T(t)\) to \(V\). Based on some preparatory steps the authors give an abstract necessary and sufficient condition for the existence of a restricted global attractor. The theorem is then applied to a number of known systems such as the Hodgkin-Huxley equation, the Fitz-Nagumo equation, the 2D-Navier-Stokes equations, Burgers equation and others. The paper concludes with a discussion of the difficulties related to the technical assumptions \(A1\), \(A2\).