On a long range segregation model (Q1687381)

The purpose of this work is a first attempt to study the properties of a segregation process. Basically, the authors consider a family of equations \[ L(u_i) (x) = u_i(x) F_i (u_1, \ldots, u_K)(x),\qquad i=1,\ldots, K, \] where \(F_i (u_1, \ldots, u_K)(x)\) is a non-local factor that takes into consideration the values of the functions \(u_i\) in a full neighborhood of \(x.\) They consider as a model problem the following system of equations \[ \begin{cases} \Delta u_i^\varepsilon (x) = \displaystyle\frac{1}{\varepsilon^2} u_i^\varepsilon (x) \sum\limits_{j\not= i} H(u_j^\varepsilon) (x) & \text{ in }\Omega, \\ u_i^\varepsilon=f_i & \text{ on }(\partial\Omega)_{\leq 1},\end{cases} \eqno{(2.4)} \] where \((\partial\Omega)_{\leq 1} := \left\{ x\in \Omega^c : d_\rho (x,\partial\Omega) \leq 1\right\}\), \(d_\rho (\cdot, K)=\inf_{y \in K} \rho(\cdot -y)\) is the distance function from \(K\) associated to a norm \(\rho\), and \(f_i\) are non-negative functions defined on \((\partial\Omega)_{\leq 1}\) with supports at \(\rho\)-distance \(\geq 1\) from each other: \[ d_\rho(\text{supp }\,f_i,\text{supp }\,f_j)\geq1\;,\quad \text{ for }\; i\neq j\,. \eqno{(2.3)} \] The authors denote \({\mathcal B}_r (x) := \left\{ y\in \mathbb{R}^n \mid \rho (x-y) < r\right\}\) and consider \[ H(w)(x) = \int_{{\mathcal B}_1(x)} w^p(y) \varphi \big(\rho (x-y)\big)\text{d}y,\qquad 1\leq p<\infty, \eqno{(2.5)} \] or \[ H(w) \big(x\big) = \sup_{{\mathcal B}_1(x)} w \eqno{(2.6)} \] with \(\varphi\) a strictly positive smooth function of \(\rho\), with at most polynomial decay at \(\partial{\mathcal B}_1\): \[ \varphi (\rho) \geq C(1-\rho)^q,\quad q\geq 0. \eqno{(2.7)} \] By a viscosity solution of the problem (2.4) the authors mean continuous functions \(u_1^\varepsilon,\ldots,u_K^\varepsilon\) that satisfy the system of equations (2.4) in the viscosity sense. Moreover, the authors assume: \[ \begin{cases} \varepsilon>0, \, \Omega \text{ is a bounded Lipschitz domain of } \mathbb{R}^n, \cr f_i: (\partial\Omega)_{\leq 1}\to\mathbb{R},\,f_i\geq 0,\,f_i\not\equiv0,\, f_i\text{ is Hölder continuous}, \cr \exists \,c>0 \,\forall x\in\partial\Omega\cap\text{supp}\,f_i,\, |{\mathcal B}_r(x)\cap \text{supp}\,f_i|\geq c|{\mathcal B}_r(x)|,\cr \text{(2.3) holds true},\cr H \text{ is either of the form (2.5) or (2.6) and (2.7) holds.}\end{cases} \eqno{(2.8)} \] The main result of this article is the following theorem. Theorem 4.1. Assume (2.8). Then there exist continuous positive functions \(u_1^\varepsilon,\ldots,u_K^\varepsilon\), depending on the parameter \(\varepsilon\), which form a viscosity solution of the problem (2.4). The authors also investigate the limit problem for \(\varepsilon\to 0\) and obtain several results about properties of the boundary sets \(\partial\{u_i>0\}\).