Well-posedness of nonconvex degenerate sweeping process via unconstrained evolution problems (Q2178190)

The authors consider the perturbed evolution inclusion \[ -\dot{u}(t)\in N_{C(t)}\left( Au(t)\right)+f(t,u(t))\text{ a.e. on }[0,T], \] \[ u(0)=u_{0},Au(0)\in C(0), \] where \(C\) maps \([0,T]\) into the nonempty, closed, uniformly \(r\)-prox-regular subsets of \(H\), \(H\) is a real Hilbert space, \(N_{S}(v)\) represents the Clarke normal cone to the set \(S\) at \(v\), \(A:H\rightarrow H\) is a Lipschitz and strongly monotone operator, and \(f:\) \([0,T]\times H\rightarrow H\) is Lipschitz in its second variable.\ They approach this problem by showing that its set of solutions (in the unperturbed case) coincides with the set of solutions for the differential inclusion \[ -\dot{u}(t)\in \frac{\left\vert \dot{\zeta}(t)\right\vert }{\beta }\partial d_{C(t)}\left( Au(t)\right) \text{ a.e. on }[0,T] , \] \[ u(0)=u_{0}, Au(0)\in C(0), \] where the distance function \(d\) satisfies \(\left\vert d_{C(t)}(x)-d_{C(s)}(x)\right\vert \leq \left\vert \zeta (t)-\zeta (s)\right\vert \) for all \(t,s\in \lbrack 0,T]\) and all \(x\in H\), \(\zeta :[0,T]\rightarrow \mathbb{R}\) is absolutely continuous and nonnegative, \(\partial d_{S}\) is the Clarke subdifferential of the distance function, and \(A\) is a \(\beta \)-coercive operator. \ Then they extend these notions to the perturbed case, and apply a result found in [\textit{C. Castaing} and \textit{M. Valadier}, Convex analysis and measurable multifunctions. Berlin: Springer (1977; Zbl 0346.46038)] to obtain the existence of solutions in the finite dimensional case, and also specify a condition for uniqueness. The article makes use of ideas for the classical sweeping process from [\textit{L. Thibault}, J. Differ. Equations 193, No. 1, 1--26 (2003; Zbl 1037.34007)] and extends those results. An application is given to quasistatic unilateral dynamics in nonsmooth mechanics.