On uniform observability of gradient flows in the vanishing viscosity limit (Q2660427)

The authors considered in this lengthy paper a transport equation by a gradient vector field with a small viscous perturbation \(-\epsilon \Delta_g\) and studied the uniform observability (respectively controllability) properties in the (singular) vanishing viscosity limit \(\epsilon \to 0^+\), that is, the possibility of having a uniformly bounded observation constant (respectively control cost). They proved with a series of examples that in general, the minimal time for uniform observability may be much larger than the minimal time needed for the observability of the limit equation \(\epsilon = 0\). It is also proved that the two minimal times coincide for positive solutions. The proofs are based on a semiclassical reformulation of the problem together with (i) Agmon estimates concerning the decay of eigenfunctions in the classically forbidden region [\textit{B. Helffer} and \textit{J. Sjöstrand}, Commun. Partial Differ. Equations 9, 337--408 (1984; Zbl 0546.35053)] and (ii) fine estimates of the kernel of the semiclassical heat equation [\textit{P. Li} and \textit{S. T. Yau}, Acta Math. 156, 154--201 (1986; Zbl 0611.58045)].