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Alessandro Goffi

Publications and source records attributed to Alessandro Goffi.

35 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

High-order estimates for fully nonlinear equations under weak concavity assumptions

This paper studies a priori and regularity estimates of Evans-Krylov type in Hölder spaces for fully nonlinear uniformly elliptic and parabolic equations of second order when the operator fails to be concave or convex in the space of symmetric matrices. In particular, it is assumed that either the level sets are convex or the operator is concave, convex or close to a linear function near infinity. As a byproduct, these results imply polynomial Liouville theorems for entire solutions of elliptic equations and for ancient solutions to parabolic problems.

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A priori Lipschitz estimates for nonlinear equations with mixed local and nonlocal diffusion via the adjoint-Bernstein method

We establish a priori Lipschitz estimates for equations with mixed local and nonlocal diffusion, coercive gradient terms and unbounded right-hand side in Lebesgue spaces through an integral refinement of the Bernstein method. This relies on a nonlinear, nonlocal and variational version of the Bochner identity that involves the adjoint equation of the linearization of the initial problem.

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Liouville results for fully nonlinear equations modeled on Hörmander vector fields: II. Carnot groups and Grushin geometries

The paper treats second order fully nonlinear degenerate elliptic equations having a family of subunit vector fields satisfying a full-rank bracket condition. It studies Liouville properties for viscosity sub- and supersolutions in the whole space, namely, that under a suitable bound at infinity from above and, respectively, from below, they must be constants. In a previous paper we proved an abstract result and discussed operators on the Heisenberg group. Here we consider various families of vector fields: the generators of a Carnot group, with more precise results for those of step 2, in particular H-type groups and free Carnot groups, the Grushin and the Heisenberg-Greiner vector fields. All these cases are relevant in sub-Riemannian geometry and have in common the existence of a homogeneous norm that we use for building Lyapunov-like functions for each operator. We give explicit sufficient conditions on the size and sign of the first and zero-th order terms in the equations and discuss their optimality. We also outline some applications of such results to the problem of ergodicity of multidimensional degenerate diffusion processes in the whole space.

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Sobolev regularity for nonlinear Poisson equations with Neumann boundary conditions on Riemannian manifolds

In this paper, we study the Sobolev regularity of solutions to nonlinear second order elliptic equations with super-linear first-order terms on Riemannian manifolds, complemented with Neumann boundary conditions, when the source term of the equation belongs to a Lebesgue space, under various integrability regimes. Our method is based on an integral refinement of the Bochner's identity, and leads to "semilinear Calderón-Zygmund" type results. Applications to the problem of smoothness of solutions to Mean Field Games systems with Neumann boundary conditions posed on convex domains of the Euclidean space will also be discussed.

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Hölder regularity and Liouville properties for nonlinear elliptic inequalities with power-growth gradient terms

This note studies local integral gradient bounds for distributional solutions of a large class of partial differential inequalities with diffusion in divergence form and power-like first-order terms. The applications of these estimates are two-fold. First, we show the (sharp) global Hölder regularity of distributional semi-solutions to this class of diffusive PDEs with first-order terms having supernatural growth and right-hand side in a suitable Morrey class posed on a bounded and regular open set $Ω$. Second, we provide a new proof of entire Liouville properties for inequalities with superlinear first-order terms without assuming any one-side bound on the solution for the corresponding homogeneous partial differential inequalities. We also discuss some extensions of the previous properties to problems arising in sub-Riemannian geometry and also to partial differential inequalities posed on noncompact complete Riemannian manifolds under appropriate area-growth conditions of the geodesic spheres, providing new results in both these directions. The methods rely on integral arguments and do not exploit maximum and comparison principles.

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On the Liouville property for fully nonlinear equations with superlinear first-order terms

We consider in this note one-side Liouville properties for viscosity solutions of various fully nonlinear uniformly elliptic inequalities, whose prototype is $F(x,D^2u)\geq H_i(x,u,Du)$ in $\mathbb{R}^N$, where $H_i$ has superlinear growth in the gradient variable. After a brief survey on the existing literature, we discuss the validity or the failure of the Liouville property in the model cases $H_1(u,Du)=u^q+|Du|^γ$, $H_2(u,Du)=u^q|Du|^γ$ and $H_3(x,u,Du)=\pm u^q|Du|^γ-b(x)\cdot Du$, where $q\geq0$, $γ>1$ and $b$ is a suitable velocity field. Several counterexamples and open problems are thoroughly discussed.

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A policy iteration method for Mean Field Games

The policy iteration method is a classical algorithm for solving optimal control problems. In this paper, we introduce a policy iteration method for Mean Field Games systems, and we study the convergence of this procedure to a solution of the problem. We also introduce suitable discretizations to numerically solve both stationary and evolutive problems. We show the convergence of the policy iteration method for the discrete problem and we study the performance of the proposed algorithm on some examples in dimension one and two.

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Transport equations with nonlocal diffusion and applications to Hamilton-Jacobi equations

We investigate regularity and a priori estimates for Fokker-Planck and Hamilton-Jacobi equations with unbounded ingredients driven by the fractional Laplacian of order $s\in(1/2,1)$. As for Fokker-Planck equations, we establish integrability estimates under a fractional version of the Aronson-Serrin interpolated condition on the velocity field and Bessel regularity when the drift has low Lebesgue integrability with respect to the solution itself. Using these estimates, through the Evans' nonlinear adjoint method we prove new integral, sup-norm and Hölder estimates for weak and strong solutions to fractional Hamilton-Jacobi equations with unbounded right-hand side and polynomial growth in the gradient. Finally, by means of these latter results, exploiting Calderón-Zygmund-type regularity for linear nonlocal PDEs and fractional Gagliardo-Nirenberg inequalities, we deduce optimal $L^q$-regularity for fractional Hamilton-Jacobi equations.

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Maximal $L^q$-regularity for parabolic Hamilton-Jacobi equations and applications to Mean Field Games

In this paper we investigate maximal $L^q$-regularity for time-dependent viscous Hamilton-Jacobi equations with unbounded right-hand side and superlinear growth in the gradient. Our approach is based on the interplay between new integral and Hölder estimates, interpolation inequalities, and parabolic regularity for linear equations. These estimates are obtained via a duality method à la Evans. This sheds new light on a parabolic counterpart of a conjecture by P.-L. Lions on maximal regularity for Hamilton-Jacobi equations, recently addressed in the stationary framework by the authors. Finally, applications to the existence problem of classical solutions to Mean Field Games systems with unbounded local couplings are provided.

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A note on the strong maximum principle for fully nonlinear equations on Riemannian manifolds

We investigate strong maximum (and minimum) principles for fully nonlinear second order equations on Riemannian manifolds that are non-totally degenerate and satisfy appropriate scaling conditions. Our results apply to a large class of nonlinear operators, among which Pucci's extremal operators, some singular operators like those modeled on the $p$- and $\infty$-Laplacian, and mean curvature type problems. As a byproduct, we establish new strong comparison principles for some second order uniformly elliptic problems when the manifold has nonnegative sectional curvature.

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Liouville results for fully nonlinear equations modeled on Hörmander vector fields. I. The Heisenberg group

This paper studies Liouville properties for viscosity sub- and supersolutions of fully nonlinear degenerate elliptic PDEs, under the main assumption that the operator has a family of generalized subunit vector fields that satisfy the Hörmander condition. A general set of sufficient conditions is given such that all subsolutions bounded above are constant; it includes the existence of a supersolution out of a big ball, that explodes at infinity. Therefore for a large class of operators the problem is reduced to finding such a Lyapunov-like function. This is done here for the vector fields that generate the Heisenberg group, giving explicit conditions on the sign and size of the first and zero-th order terms in the equation. The optimality of the conditions is shown via several examples. A sequel of this paper applies the methods to other Carnot groups and to Grushin geometries.

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Existence and regularity results for viscous Hamilton-Jacobi equations with Caputo time-fractional derivative

We study existence, uniqueness and regularity properties of classical solutions to viscous Hamilton-Jacobi equations with Caputo time-fractional derivative. Our study relies on a combination of a gradient bound for the time-fractional Hamilton-Jacobi equation obtained via nonlinear adjoint method and sharp estimates in Sobolev and Hölder spaces for the corresponding linear problem.

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Lipschitz regularity for viscous Hamilton-Jacobi equations with $L^p$ terms

We provide Lipschitz regularity for solutions to viscous time-dependent Hamilton-Jacobi equations with right-hand side belonging to Lebesgue spaces. Our approach is based on a duality method, and relies on the analysis of the regularity of the gradient of solutions to a dual (Fokker-Planck) equation. Here, the regularizing effect is due to the non-degenerate diffusion and coercivity of the Hamiltonian in the gradient variable.

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On the existence and uniqueness of solutions to time-dependent fractional MFG

We establish existence and uniqueness of solutions to evolutive fractional Mean Field Game systems with regularizing coupling, for any order of the fractional Laplacian $s\in(0,1)$. The existence is addressed via the vanishing viscosity method. In particular, we prove that in the subcritical regime $s>1/2$ the solution of the system is classical, while if $s\leq 1/2$ we find a distributional energy solution. To this aim, we develop an appropriate functional setting based on parabolic Bessel potential spaces. We show uniqueness of solutions both under monotonicity conditions and for short time horizons.

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New strong maximum and comparison principles for fully nonlinear degenerate elliptic PDEs

We introduce a notion of subunit vector field for fully nonlinear degenerate elliptic equations. We prove that an interior maximum of a viscosity subsolution of such an equation propagates along the trajectories of subunit vector fields. This implies strong maximum and minimum principles when the operator has a family of subunit vector fields satisfying the Hörmander condition. In particular these results hold for a large class of nonlinear subelliptic PDEs in Carnot groups. We prove also a strong comparison principle for degenerate elliptic equations that can be written in Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman form, such as those involving the Pucci's extremal operators over Hörmander vector fields.

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