Searcharxiv⌕ Search

arXiv subjects

Daniele Castorina

Publications and source records attributed to Daniele Castorina.

17 recordsLinked to original sources
arXiv2024

Optimal control problems driven by nonlinear degenerate Fokker-Planck equations

The well-posedness of a class of optimal control problems is analysed, where the state equation couples a nonlinear degenerate Fokker-Planck equation with a system of Ordinary Differential Equations (ODEs). Such problems naturally arise as mean-field limits of Stochastic Differential models for multipopulation dynamics, where a large number of agents (followers) is steered through parsimonious intervention on a selected class of leaders. The proposed approach combines stability estimates for measure solutions of nonlinear degenerate Fokker-Planck equations with a general framework of assumptions on the cost functional, ensuring compactness and lower semicontinuity properties. The Lie structure of the state equations allows one for considering non-Lipschitz nonlinearities, provided some suitable dissipativity assumptions are considered in addition to non-Euclidean Hölder and sublinearity conditions.

math.OC↗
arXiv2024

Well-posedness of Kolmogorov-Fokker-Planck equations with unbounded drift

We consider Kolmogorov-Fokker-Planck equations with unbounded drift terms which are only measurable in time and locally Hölder continuous in space. In particular, we extend the parametrix method to this setting and we prove existence and uniqueness of measure solutions to the associated Cauchy problem, as well as the equivalence with the corresponding stochastic formulation.

math.AP↗
arXiv2022

Mean field sparse optimal control of systems with additive white noise

We analyze the problem of controlling a multi-agent system with additive white noise through parsimonious interventions on a selected subset of the agents (leaders). For such a controlled system with a SDE constraint, we introduce a rigorous limit process towards an infinite dimensional optimal control problem constrained by the coupling of a system of ODE for the leaders with a McKean-Vlasov-type SDE, governing the dynamics of the prototypical follower. The latter is, under some assumptions on the distribution of the initial data, equivalent with a (nonlinear parabolic) PDE-ODE system. The derivation of the limit mean-field optimal control problem is achieved by linking the mean-field limit of the governing equations together with the $Γ$-limit of the cost functionals for the finite dimensional problems.

math.OC↗
arXiv2022

Semilinear Li & Yau inequalities

We derive an adaptation of Li & Yau estimates for positive solutions of semilinear heat equations on Riemannian manifolds with nonnegative Ricci tensor. We then apply these estimates to obtain a Harnack inequality and to discuss monotonicity, convexity, decay estimates and triviality of ancient and eternal solutions.

math.AP↗
arXiv2021

A matrix Harnack inequality for semilinear heat equations

We derive a matrix version of Li \& Yau--type estimates for positive solutions of semilinear heat equations on Riemannian manifolds with nonnegative sectional curvatures and parallel Ricci tensor, similarly to what R.~Hamilton did in~\cite{hamilton7} for the standard heat equation. We then apply these estimates to obtain some Harnack--type inequalities, which give local bounds on the solutions in terms of the geometric quantities involved.

math.AP↗
arXiv2020

A Triviality Result for Semilinear Parabolic Equations

We show a triviality result for "pointwise" monotone in time, bounded "eternal" solutions of the semilinear heat equation \begin{equation*} u_{t}=Δu + |u|^{p} \end{equation*} on complete Riemannian manifolds of dimension $n \geq 5$ with nonnegative Ricci tensor, when $p$ is smaller than the critical Sobolev exponent $\frac{n+2}{n-2}$.

math.AP↗
arXiv2019

Hopf Lemma and regularity results for quasilinear anisotropic elliptic equations

We consider a class of quasi-linear anisotropic elliptic equations, possibly degenerate or singular, which are of interest in several applications such as computer vision and continuum mechanics. We prove a Hopf Lemma as well as local and global regularity estimates for positive solutions, generalizing previous results known in the context of p-Laplacian equations.

math.AP↗
arXiv2016

On a singular Liouville-type equation and the Alexandrov isoperimetric inequality

We obtain a generalized version of an inequality, first derived by C. Bandle in the analytic setting, for weak subsolutions of a singular Liouville-type equation. As an application we obtain a new proof of the Alexandrov isoperimetric inequality on singular abstract surfaces. Interestingly enough, motivated by this geometric problem, we obtain a seemingly new characterization of local metrics on Alexandrov's surfaces of bounded curvature. At least to our knowledge, the characterization of the equality case in the isoperimetric inequality in such a weak framework is new as well.

math.AP↗
arXiv2015

On a parabolic Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman equation degenerating at the boundary

We derive the long time asymptotic of solutions to an evolutive Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman equation in a bounded smooth domain, in connection with ergodic problems recently studied in \cite{bcr}. Our main assumption is an appropriate degeneracy condition on the operator at the boundary. This condition is related to the characteristic boundary points for linear operators as well as to the irrelevant points for the generalized Dirichlet problem, and implies in particular that no boundary datum has to be imposed. We prove that there exists a constant $c$ such that the solutions of the evolutive problem converge uniformly, in the reference frame moving with constant velocity $c$, to a unique steady state solving a suitable ergodic problem.

math.AP↗
arXiv2015

A global existence result for a Keller-Segel type system with supercritical initial data

We consider a parabolic-elliptic Keller-Segel type system, which is related to a simplified model of chemotaxis. Concerning the maximal range of existence of solutions, there are essentially two kinds of results: either global existence in time for general subcritical ($\|ρ_0\|_1<8π$) initial data, or blow--up in finite time for suitably chosen supercritical ($\|ρ_0\|_1>8π$) initial data with concentration around finitely many points. As a matter of fact there are no results claiming the existence of global solutions in the supercritical case. We solve this problem here and prove that, for a particular set of initial data which share large supercritical masses, the corresponding solution is global and uniformly bounded.

math.AP↗
arXiv2014

Self gravitating cosmic strings and the Alexandrov's inequality for Liouville-type equations

Motivated by the study of self gravitating cosmic strings, we pursue the well known method by C. Bandle to obtain a weak version of the classical Alexandrov's isoperimetric inequality. In fact we derive some quantitative estimates for weak subsolutions of a Liouville-type equation with conical singularities. Actually we succeed in generalizing previously known results, including Bol's inequality and pointwise estimates, to the case where the solutions solve the equation just in the sense of distributions. Next, we derive some \uv{new} pointwise estimates suitable to be applied to a class of singular cosmic string equations. Finally, interestingly enough, we apply these results to establish a minimal mass property for solutions of the cosmic string equation which are \uv{supersolutions} of the singular Liouville-type equation.

math.AP↗
arXiv2014

Ground States for Diffusion Dominated Free Energies with Logarithmic Interaction

Replacing linear diffusion by a degenerate diffusion of porous medium type is known to regularize the classical two-dimensional parabolic-elliptic Keller-Segel model. The implications of nonlinear diffusion are that solutions exist globally and are uniformly bounded in time. We analyse the stationary case showing the existence of a unique, up to translation, global minimizer of the associated free energy. Furthermore, we prove that this global minimizer is a radially decreasing compactly supported continuous density function which is smooth inside its support, and it is characterized as the unique compactly supported stationary state of the evolution model. This unique profile is the clear candidate to describe the long time asymptotics of the diffusion dominated classical Keller-Segel model for general initial data.

math.AP↗
arXiv2013

Regularity of stable solutions to semilinear elliptic equations on Riemannian models

We consider the reaction-diffusion problem $-Δ_g u = f(u)$ in $\mathcal{B}_R$ with zero Dirichlet boundary condition, posed in a geodesic ball $\mathcal{B}_R$ with radius $R$ of a Riemannian model $(M,g)$. This class of Riemannian manifolds includes the classical \textit{space forms}, i.e., the Euclidean, elliptic, and hyperbolic spaces. For the class of semistable solutions we prove radial symmetry and monotonicity. Furthermore, we establish $L^\infty$, $L^p$, and $W^{1,p}$ estimates which are optimal and do not depend on the nonlinearity $f$. As an application, under standard assumptions on the nonlinearity $λf(u)$, we prove that the corresponding extremal solution $u^*$ is bounded whenever $n\leq9$. To establish the optimality of our regularity results we find the extremal solution for some exponential and power nonlinearities using an improved weighted Hardy inequality.

math.AP↗
arXiv2012

Regularity of stable solutions of $p$-Laplace equations through geometric Sobolev type inequalities

In this paper we prove a Sobolev and a Morrey type inequality involving the mean curvature and the tangential gradient with respect to the level sets of the function that appears in the inequalities. Then, as an application, we establish \textit{a priori} estimates for semi-stable solutions of $-Δ_p u= g(u)$ in a smooth bounded domain $Ω\subset \mathbb{R}^n$. In particular, we obtain new $L^r$ and $W^{1,r}$ bounds for the extremal solution $u^\star$ when the domain is strictly convex. More precisely, we prove that $u^\star\in L^\infty(Ω)$ if $n\leq p+2$ and $u^\star\in L^{\frac{np}{n-p-2}}(Ω)\cap W^{1,p}_0(Ω)$ if $n>p+2$.

math.AP↗