On two classes of nonstandard parabolic problems (Q2568959)

The authors motivate their work using the following ill-posed problem for the heat equation. Find a solution \(u(x,t)\) of \[ \begin{aligned} \frac{\partial u}{\partial t}-\Delta u=0 \quad\text{in}\quad \Omega\times(0,T),\\ u=0 \quad\text{on}\quad \partial\Omega\times[0,T],\\ u(x,T)=g(x)\quad \text{in}\quad \Omega, \end{aligned} \tag{1} \] where \(\Omega\) is a bounded domain in \(\mathbb R^N\), \(g\) is a given function, and \(\Delta\) is the Laplacian. Since the problem is ill-posed, they suggest replacing condition (1) by \[ \gamma\int_0^T e^{-\gamma(T-s)}u(x,s) \, ds=g(x).\tag{2} \] As \(\gamma\to\infty\), the quantity \(\gamma e^{-\gamma(T-s)}\) tends to the unit point mass at \(s=T\), so that for large \(\gamma\), condition (2) approximates condition (1). In a general setting, let \(A\) be a linear, symmetric, time independent, positive definite, densely defined operator on a Hilbert space, and let \(\gamma\) be a nonzero constant. The authors consider solutions \(u(t)\) to the problem \[ \frac{du}{dt}+Au=f(t)\quad\text{for}\quad 0<t<T, \] \[ \gamma\int_0^T e^{-\gamma(T-s)}u(s) \, ds=g, \] and derive bounds for \(\|u(t)\|\) in terms of the data, for a range of values of the parameter \(\gamma\). The results are applied to the heat equation, and with some modifications to the equation of Stokes flow of a viscous fluid, and to temperature dependent Stokes flow.