Viscous approximations of non-convex sweeping processes in the space of regulated functions (Q6080423)

In the paper under review a Moreau's sweeping process with non convex constraints is considered. The sweeping process dealt with in the paper is a suitable integral formulation of the evolutionary differential inclusion \[ \dot\xi(t) \in -N\big(u(t) - Z;\xi(t)\big), \quad t \in [0,T], \] where \(\xi\) is a unknown Hilbert space valued function of time, and \(N(u(t) - Z;\xi(t))\) is the ourward normal cone to \(u(t) - Z\) at \(\xi(t)\), \(Z\) being a uniformly prox-regular constraint and \(u\) being a regulated function, i.e. a function \(u\) such that the left and right limits \(u(t-)\) and \(u(t+)\) exist at every time \(t\). Once the initial condition is prescribed, the existence of a unique regulated solution of this problem was proved by the authors in a previous paper [\textit{P. Krejčí} et al., Commun. Pure Appl. Anal. 21, No. 9, 2999--3029 (2022; Zbl 1525.34093)], where it is assumed that \(Z\) satisfies an interior cone condition at every point of its boundary. Here they address the analysis of a viscous approximation of the form \[ \epsilon\dot\xi_\epsilon(t) = \frac{f\big(\text{dist}(u(t)-\xi_\epsilon(t),Z)\big)}{\text{dist}(u(t)-\xi_\epsilon(t),Z)} \big(u(t) - \xi_\epsilon(t) - \text{Proj}_Z(u(t) - \xi_\epsilon(t))\big) \] for a convex increasing function \(f\) such that \(f(0) = 0\). The authors prove that this viscous approximation is well-posed for \(\epsilon\) small enough and that its absolutely continuous solution \(\xi_\epsilon\) is pointwise convergent to \(\xi\) as \(\epsilon\) goes to zero. If \(u\) is assumed to be continuous, then this convergence is also uniform in time.