Optimal control of a nonlinear population dynamics with diffusion (Q809017)

The author presents a series of age-dependent population diffusion models in the form of nonlinear parabolic variational inequalities with mixed boundary conditions. Different forms of specific functions in the inequalities and the boundary conditions represent for example the infusion or the harvest of a population in a given region or its boundary, a migration from the region to outside or from the outside to the region. Existence results for the given boundary value problems are proved via fixed point results applied to a sequence of approximations to a variational solution. Moreover, under specific assumptions uniqueness of solutions is proved, too. The author gives also necessary conditions for two ``optimal harvesting'' problems in the form of a weak bang-bang principle. Other optimal control problems for which the necessary conditions are found include maximization of the final population, minimization of the cost and approximation of a spatial profile by infusion control. The last part of the paper presents an iterative scheme for the optimal control problems based on a fractional steps formula used for approximations.