A semigroup related to a convex combination of boundary conditions obtained as a result of averaging other semigroups (Q2351632)

The operators of interest are \[ A\phi(a) = - \phi'(a) - \mu(a) \phi(a) \eqno(1) \] in \(L^1(0, \infty);\) the domain \(D(A)\) consist of all \(\phi(\cdot) \in W^{1, 1}(0, \infty)\) satisfying the nonlocal boundary condition \[ \phi(0) = \int_0^\infty b(a) \phi(a)\,da, \eqno(2) \] where \(\mu(a)\) and \(b(a)\) are bounded measurable functions. A model of age-structured populations leads to a system of partial differential equations featuring \(n\) operators \(A_1, A_2, \dots, A_n\) of the form (1) with boundary conditions (2). If \(\mu_1(\cdot), \mu_2(\cdot), \dots,\mu_n(\cdot)\) and \(b_1(\cdot), b_2(\cdot), \dots, b_n(\cdot)\) are the functions corresponding to each operator, an approximation scheme for the system leads to an equation involving the \textit{averaged} operator \(A\) with \(\mu(a) = \sum_{j=1}^n v_j \mu_j(a)\) and \(b(a) = \sum_{j=1}^n v_j b_j(a)\), \(v_j\) a probability vector. The authors deal with this situation by means of an abstract scheme for (1)--(2) due to \textit{G. Greiner} [Houston J. Math. 13, No. 2, 213--229 (1987; Zbl 0639.47034)]. In it, there are two Banach spaces \(X\) and \(Y\), a closed operator \(A: D(A) \subset X \to X\) and a surjective operator \(L: D(A) \to Y\) bounded in the graph norm of \(D(A)\). It is assumed that the restriction \(A_0\) of \(A\) defined by \(Ly = 0\) generates a strongly continuous semigroup, and conditions are given in order that the restriction \(A_F\) of \(A\) defined by \((L - F)y = 0\) (\(F : X \to Y\) a bounded operator) is a semigroup generator as well; the \(A\) in mind is (1), \(L\phi(\cdot) = \phi(0)\) and \(F\) is defined by the right side of (2). The authors consider two operators \(A_{F_1}\) and \(A_{F_2}\) created by the above scheme, and the operator \(A_{F_a}\) where \(F_a = F_1 \alpha + F_2(I - \alpha)\) where \(\alpha : X \to X\) is a bounded operator, with the main goal of approximating the semigroup \(S_a(t)\) generated by \(A_{F_a}\) by means of the semigroups generated by \(A_{F_1}\), \(A_{F_2}\) via formulas of Trotter type. There is an interesting probabilistic interpretation for operators (1)--(2) in \(L^1\) spaces when \(\alpha\) is multiplication by a measurable function \(\alpha(\cdot)\), \(0 \leq \alpha(x) \leq 1\).