The dynamical approach to elliptic problems in cylindrical domains, and a study of their parabolic singular limit (Q685789)

The results of this paper concern a general problem which typically includes certain semilinear elliptic problems in cylindrical domains, like for example the following one: \(u\) is a function of \((x,t)\in\Omega\times\mathbb{R}\), where \(\Omega\) is a bounded domain in \(\mathbb{R}^ n\) with boundary of class \(C^ 1\); this function is required to satisfy an equation of the form \[ -\Delta u \varepsilon^ 2u_{tt}+2\alpha u_ t=f(u),\tag{1} \] together with either Dirichlet or Neumann boundary conditions and a condition of boundedness as \(t\) tends towards \(+\infty\) or towards \(-\infty\) or both. Here, \(\alpha\) and \(\varepsilon\) are real parameters whose values range from the elliptic case \(\varepsilon>0\) to the singular limiting parabolic case \(\varepsilon=0\), \(\alpha\neq 0\), in which the problem turns into a semilinear diffusion problem on \(\Omega\). We shall assume that \(f\) satisfies a condition which in the limiting parabolic case ensures dissipativeness. In general, the function \(f\) could depend also on \(x\). The preceding problem determines the profiles of the travelling wave solutions of velocity \(2\alpha/\varepsilon\) of a semilinear diffusion problem on \(\Omega\times\mathbb{R}\). Specifically, if \(v(x,y;\tau)\) is a solution of \(v_ \tau=(\Delta v+v_{yy})+f(y)\) of the form \(v(x,y;\tau)=u(x,\varepsilon y+2\alpha\tau)\), then \(u(x,t)\) satisfies (1). We look at the problem above as an evolution problem with the variable \(t\) playing the role of time and \(u\) and \(u_ t\) being considered as taking values in certain spaces \(X\) and \(Y\) of functions on \(\Omega\). Although for \(\varepsilon > 0\) the general evolution problem is not well- posed, we prove that the set \({\mathcal X} \subset X\times Y\) of initial states for which a solution exists for \(t \geq 0\) which remains bounded as \(t \to + \infty\) is closed, and on \({\mathcal X}\) the evolution problem defines a (semi)-dynamical system which has a compact global attractor \({\mathcal A}\). This is true for any \(\alpha \in \mathbb{R}\), positive, negative, or zero. The set \({\mathcal A}\) consists of the initial states for which a solution exists which stays defined and bounded as \(t\) tends towards both \(+\infty\) and \(-\infty\). For \(\alpha>0\) fixed and \(\varepsilon\) less than a certain given value \(\overline \varepsilon\), the neighbourhood of \({\mathcal A}\) in \({\mathcal X}\) is an infinite-dimensional manifold parametrized by \(u\). Furthermore, both this manifold and the flow on it depend continuously on \(\varepsilon>0\) in the \(C^ 1\) topology, and as \(\varepsilon\) tends to 0 the projection of the flow on \(X\) converges in the \(C^ 1\) topology towards the flow defined on \(X\) by the limiting parabolic problem, the convergence being uniform with respect to \(t\) when \(t\) varies over a compact subinterval of \((0,+ \infty)\). Finally, in the case \(\dim \Omega = 1\) with all equilibria hyperbolic, we prove that the stable and unstable manifolds of equilibria remain transversal all the way from \(\varepsilon = 0\) to \(\overline \varepsilon\); as a consequence we obtain that the global attractor and the flow on it remain equivalent all over this range of values of \(\varepsilon\). The present paper is a counterpart to [\textit{X. Mora} and \textit{J. Sola- Morales}, J. Differ. Equations 78, No. 2, 262-307 (1989; Zbl 0699.35177)], where similar topics are considered with regard to the hyperbolic problem obtained by reversing the sign in front of \(\varepsilon^ 2\) in Eq. (1).