Global approximately controllability and finite dimensional exact controllability of semilinear heat equation in \(\mathbb{R}^N\) (Q1432861)

The authors investigate a control problem for an elliptic nonlinear equation with a monotone operator and Dirichlet boundary conditions. Coefficients of the equations and an open set, where the problem is solved, are treated as control variables. It is known that in the case when the set (or the operator) is fixed, the problem in question has no solution. The authors show existence of a solution when the controls are searched in a larger set. At that, the problem is embedded in the class of generalized variational problems, in which pairs ``auxiliary functionals -- special measures of open sets'' (along with equation's coefficients) are considered as controls. Results obtained by the authors can generalized to system of equations. As to applications of the results, the latter are related to choosing optimal shape materials.