Critical spectrum and stability for population equations with diffusion in unbounded domains (Q558583)

The authors utilize the concept of the critical spectrum introduced by \textit{R.~Nagel} and \textit{J.~Poland} [Adv. Math. 152, No. 1, 120--133 (2000; Zbl 1054.47034)] to study the following population model with diffusion \[ u_t=-u_a-\mu(a)u+k(a)\Delta_xu,\quad t\geq 0, \;a\in[0,a_m], x\in{\mathbb R}^n,\tag{1} \] equipped with the initial boundary conditions \[ u(t,0,x)=\int_{0}^{a_m}\beta(a,x)u(t,a,x)\,da, \quad t\geq 0,\;x\in{\mathbb R}^n \tag{2} \] and \[ u(0,a,x)=f(a,x),\quad a\in[0,a_m],\;x\in{\mathbb R}^n. \tag{3} \] Due to the unbounded domain in \(x\), the usual compactness properties or perturbation results for the essential spectrum do not apply in order to study asymptotic properties of solutions. Thus, the authors make use of the critical spectrum and derive some abstract results for its stability in the framework of Hille-Yosida operators. Under appropriate conditions on the system functions \(\mu,k\), data \(\beta,f\) and the parameter \(a_m\leq\infty\), these results are applied to obtain criteria that the semigroup associated with (1)--(3) is eventually norm continuous, exponentially stable or asymptotically norm continuous, respectively. In the final section, a population equation with absorption on bounded domains is studied using a similar analysis.