Weighted energy-dissipation principle for gradient flows in metric spaces (Q2317071)

The very interesting paper under review focuses on gradient flows in metric spaces. The authors extend to the metric framework the analysis carried out within a Hilbert space \(H\) in [\textit{A. Mielke} and \textit{U. Stefanelli}, ESAIM, Control Optim. Calc. Var. 17, No. 1, 52--85 (2011; Zbl 1218.35007)], where the gradient flow \[ u'(t)+\partial \phi(u(t))\ni 0\quad \text{in}\ H\qquad \text{for a.a.}\ t\in (0,T) \] was studied by considering the functional of trajectories \(u\in H^1(0,T;H)\to (-\infty,\infty]\) defined by \[ \mathcal{I}_{\varepsilon,T}[u]=\int_0^T \mathrm{e}^{-t/\varepsilon}\left(\dfrac{1}{2}|u'(t)|^2+\dfrac{1}{\varepsilon}\phi(u(t))\right)\mathrm{d}t. \] This functional features both the energy and the (quadratic) dissipation terms, with an exponential weight, and is referred to as WED (Weighted Energy-Dissipation) functional. The authors deal with gradient flows set in a complete metric space \((X,\mathbf{d})\) by considering the functional \[ \mathcal{I}_{\varepsilon}[u]=\int_0^\infty \mathrm{e}^{-t/\varepsilon}\left(\dfrac{1}{2}|u'|^2(t)+\dfrac{1}{\varepsilon}\phi(u(t))\right)\mathrm{d}t. \] It is proved that, for a reasonably wide class of driving energy functionals \(\phi,\) the WED minimizers \(u_\varepsilon\) of \(\mathcal{I}_{\varepsilon}[u]\) among the natural class of absolutely continuous curves \(u:\ [0,\infty)\to X\) satisfying a given initial condition \(u(0) = x,\) converge up to subsequences to curves of maximal slope for \(\phi\) which are characterized by \[ -(\phi\circ u)'(t)= \dfrac{1}{2}|u'|^2(t)+\dfrac{1}{2}|\partial \phi|^2(u(t))=|u'|^2(t)=|\partial \phi|^2(u(t))\quad \text{for a.a.}\ t\in (0,\infty). \] Since the WED approach does not involve directly the distance \(\mathbf{d}\) but it relies on the notion of length and quadratic action of a curve, the metric strategy developed in the paper could be extended to more general cases of length structures where the length of a curve may be strongly affected by the geometry of the sublevels of the functional \(\phi.\)