Action functional and quasi-potential for the Burgers equation in a bounded interval

Abstract

Consider the viscous Burgers equation $u_t + f(u)_x = ε\, u_{xx}$ on the interval $[0,1]$ with the inhomogeneous Dirichlet boundary conditions $u(t,0) = ρ_0$, $u(t,1) = ρ_1$. The flux $f$ is the function $f(u)= u(1-u)$, $ε>0$ is the viscosity, and the boundary data satisfy $0<ρ_0<ρ_1<1$. We examine the quasi-potential corresponding to an action functional, arising from non-equilibrium statistical mechanical models, associated to the above equation. We provide a static variational formula for the quasi-potential and characterize the optimal paths for the dynamical problem. In contrast with previous cases, for small enough viscosity, the variational problem defining the quasi potential admits more than one minimizer. This phenomenon is interpreted as a non-equilibrium phase transition and corresponds to points where the super-differential of the quasi-potential is not a singleton.