Existence and approximation results for gradient flows (Q2504950)

Summary: This note addresses the Cauchy problem for the gradient flow equation in a Hilbert space \(\mathcal{H}\) \[ \left\{\begin{matrix} \l\\ u'(t) + \partial \phi(u(t)) \ni 0 \quad \text{ a.e. in } (0,T), \\ u(0) = u_0. \end{matrix} \right. \tag{1} \] where \(\phi \,:\mathcal{H}\rightarrow (-\infty ,+\infty]\) is a proper, lower semicontinuous functional which is not supposed to be a (smooth perturbation of a) convex functional and \(\partial \phi \) is (a suitable limiting version of) its subdifferential. The interest for this kind of equations is motivated by a number of examples, which show that several mathematical models describing phase transitions phenomena and leading to systems of evolutionary PDEs have a \textit{common gradient flow structure}. In particular, when quasi-stationary models are considered, highly non-convex functionals naturally arise. We will present some existence results for the solution of the gradient flow equation by exploiting a variational \textit{approximation} technique, featuring some ideas from the theory of \textit{Minimizing Movements}.