Non-convergence of the principal eigenvalue of elliptic operators for large advection

Abstract

This paper investigates the limit of the principal eigenvalue $\lambda(s)$ as $s\to+\infty$ for the following elliptic equation \begin{align*} -\Delta\varphi(x)-2s\mathbf{v}\cdot\nabla\varphi(x)+c(x)\varphi(x)=\lambda(s)\varphi(x), \quad x\in \Omega \end{align*} in a bounded domain $\Omega\subset \mathbb{R}^d (d\geq 1)$ with the Neumann boundary condition. Previous studies have shown that under certain conditions on $\mathbf{v}$, $\lambda(s)$ converges as $s\to\infty$ (including cases where $\lim\limits_{s \to\infty }\lambda(s)=\pm\infty$). This work constructs an example such that $\lambda(s)$ is divergent as $s\to+\infty$. This seems to be the first rigorous result demonstrating the non-convergence of the principal eigenvalue for second-order linear elliptic operators with some strong advection. As an application, we demonstrate that for the classical advection-reaction-diffusion model with advective velocity field $\mathbf{v}=\nabla m$, where $m$ is a potential function with infinite oscillations, the principal eigenvalue changes sign infinitely often along a subsequence of $s\to\infty$. This leads to solution behaviors that differ significantly from those observed when $m$ is non-oscillatory.