A singular initial value problem to construct density-equalizing maps (Q2429387)

This paper is concerned with the so-called diffusion-based algorithm to obtain density-equalizing maps, i.e., diffeomorphisms \(\Phi : \overline{\Omega} \to \overline{\Omega}\) where \(\Omega\) is a given bounded domain of \(\mathbb R^n\) such that the determinant of the Jacobian \(\det D(\Phi)(x)\) is a prescribed positive density \(\rho = \rho(x)\) for all \(x \in \overline{\Omega} \subset \mathbb R^n\). In the diffusion-based algorithm such a diffeomorphism \(\Phi\) is obtained by computing a scalar vector field \(u = u(t,x)\), \(u : \mathbb R \times \overline{\Omega} \to \mathbb R\) that satisfies \(\partial_t u(t,x) = \Delta u(t,x)\), \(t \geq 0\), \(x \in \overline{\Omega}\) with \(u(0,x) = \rho(x)\) and homogeneous boundary conditions. After that for each \(x_0 \in \overline{\Omega}\) the solution of the initial value problem: \[ \begin{aligned} x^\prime (t) = \left( -\nabla u(t,x(t)) \right) / u(t,x(t)),\quad &t \geq 0 \text{ with }x(0) = x_0 \text{ defines } \Phi(x_0) \\ &\text{as the limit }\Phi(x_0) = \lim_{t\to+\infty} x(t). \end{aligned} \leqno{(\ast)} \] A main issue in this approach is the existence of a unique solution of \((\ast )\) for \(t\) close to 0. In the paper under consideration, the main result is that such a uniqueness holds for a special class of two-dimensional density functions \(\rho = \rho (x)\) that are piecewise constants on a finite number of angular sectors of type \(\theta_i < \mathrm{arg} (x) < \theta_{i+1}\), \( i=1, \ldots , k\), \(\theta_{k+1}= \theta_1 + 2 \pi\). Further, the proof of the above result is based on two additional properties that generalize uniqueness results in ordinary differential equations.