Uniform exponential contraction for viscous Hamilton-Jacobi equations

Abstract

The well known phenomenon of exponential contraction for solutions to the viscous Hamilton-Jacobi equation in the space-periodic setting is based on the Markov mechanism. However, the corresponding Lyapunov exponent $\lambda(\nu)$ characterizing the exponential rate of contraction depends on the viscosity $\nu$. The Markov mechanism provides only a lower bound for $\lambda(\nu)$ which vanishes in the limit $\nu \to 0$. At the same time, in the inviscid case $\nu=0$ one also has exponential contraction based on a completely different dynamical mechanism. This mechanism is based on hyperbolicity of action-minimizing orbits for the related Lagrangian variational problem. In this paper we consider the discrete time case (kicked forcing), and establish a uniform lower bound for $\lambda(\nu)$ which is valid for all $\nu\geq 0$. The proof is based on a nontrivial interplay between the dynamical and Markov mechanisms for exponential contraction. We combine PDE methods with the ideas from the Weak KAM theory.