arXiv subjects

Michael Kniely

Publications and source records attributed to Michael Kniely.

11 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Global classical solutions by transport noise for reaction-diffusion systems with entropy dissipation

The existence of global classical solutions for reaction-diffusion systems arising from chemical reaction networks remains a major open problem in the deterministic setting, especially for reactions with high polynomial growth. We prove that a suitably chosen, physically motivated transport noise yields unique strong solutions for complex balanced chemical reaction networks that are global in time with arbitrarily high probability. These solutions possess paths in $C^{\theta}_t C^{\infty}_x$ for all $\theta<1/2$ and are, in particular, classical in space. Furthermore, we show that a suitable transport noise can enhance the dissipation of spatial fluctuations at an arbitrarily prescribed exponential rate. Our proofs rely on a combination of scaling-limit arguments, maximal $L^p(L^q)$-regularity, and entropy-entropy dissipation estimates.

math.AP↗

arXiv2025

Exponential equilibration of an electro-energy-reaction-diffusion system arising from a two-level semiconductor model

We consider a thermodynamically correct framework for electro-energy-reaction-diffusion systems, which feature a monotone entropy functional while conserving the total charge and the total energy. For these systems, we construct a relative entropy functional, which acts as a Lyapunov functional, and we also give an expression for the related entropy production functional. The main result of this note is the constructive derivation of an explicit entropy-entropy production inequality in a special situation, namely for a two-level semiconductor model of Shockley-Read-Hall type. Supposing that global bounded solutions exist, we show that the relative entropy decays exponentially along trajectories of the underlying system. As a consequence, these global solutions converge to the equilibrium at an exponential rate.

math.AP↗

arXiv2024

On the equilibrium solutions of electro-energy-reaction-diffusion systems

Electro-energy-reaction-diffusion systems are thermodynamically consistent continuum models for reaction-diffusion processes that account for temperature and electrostatic effects in a way that total charge and energy are conserved. The question of the long-time asymptotic behavior of electro-energy-reaction-diffusion systems motivates the characterization of their equilibrium solutions, which leads to a maximization problem of the entropy on the manifold of states with fixed values for the linear charge and the nonlinear convex energy functional. As the main result, we establish the existence, uniqueness, and regularity of solutions to this constrained optimization problem. We give two conceptually different proofs, which are related to different perspectives on the constrained maximization problem. The first one is based on the method of Lagrange multipliers, while the second one employs the direct method of the calculus of variations.

math.AP↗

arXiv2023

Regularity of random elliptic operators with degenerate coefficients and applications to stochastic homogenization

We consider degenerate elliptic equations of second order in divergence form with a symmetric random coefficient field $a$. Extending the work of the first author, Fehrman, and Otto [Ann. Appl. Probab. 28 (2018), no. 3, 1379-1422], who established the large-scale $C^{1,α}$ regularity of $a$-harmonic functions in a degenerate situation, we provide stretched exponential moments for the minimal radius $r_*$ describing the minimal scale for this $C^{1,α}$ regularity. As an application to stochastic homogenization, we partially generalize results by Gloria, Neukamm, and Otto [Anal. PDE 14 (2021), no. 8, 2497-2537] on the growth of the corrector, the decay of its gradient, and a quantitative two-scale expansion to the degenerate setting. On a technical level, we demand the ensemble of coefficient fields to be stationary and subject to a spectral gap inequality, and we impose moment bounds on $a$ and $a^{-1}$. We also introduce the ellipticity radius $r_e$ which encodes the minimal scale where these moments are close to their positive expectation value.

math.AP↗

arXiv2021

Global existence analysis of energy-reaction-diffusion systems

We establish global-in-time existence results for thermodynamically consistent reaction-(cross-)diffusion systems coupled to an equation describing heat transfer. Our main interest is to model species-dependent diffusivities, while at the same time ensuring thermodynamic consistency. A key difficulty of the non-isothermal case lies in the intrinsic presence of cross-diffusion type phenomena like the Soret and the Dufour effect: due to the temperature/energy dependence of the thermodynamic equilibria, a nonvanishing temperature gradient may drive a concentration flux even in a situation with constant concentrations; likewise, a nonvanishing concentration gradient may drive a heat flux even in a case of spatially constant temperature. We use time discretisation and regularisation techniques and derive a priori estimates based on a suitable entropy and the associated entropy production. Renormalised solutions are used in cases where non-integrable diffusion fluxes or reaction terms appear.

math.AP↗

arXiv2021

Global renormalised solutions and equilibration of reaction-diffusion systems with non-linear diffusion

The global existence of renormalised solutions and convergence to equilibrium for reaction-diffusion systems with non-linear diffusion are investigated. The system is assumed to have quasi-positive non-linearities and to satisfy an entropy inequality. The difficulties in establishing global renormalised solutions caused by possibly degenerate diffusion are overcome by introducing a new class of weighted truncation functions. By means of the obtained global renormalised solutions, we study the large-time behaviour of complex balanced systems arising from chemical reaction network theory with non-linear diffusion. When the reaction network does not admit boundary equilibria, the complex balanced equilibrium is shown, by using the entropy method, to exponentially attract all renormalised solutions in the same compatibility class. This convergence extends even to a range of non-linear diffusion, where global existence is an open problem, yet we are able to show that solutions to approximate systems converge exponentially to equilibrium uniformly in the regularisation parameter.

math.AP↗

arXiv2021

Uniform convergence to equilibrium for a family of drift-diffusion models with trap-assisted recombination and self-consistent potential

We investigate a recombination-drift-diffusion model coupled to Poisson's equation modelling the transport of charge within certain types of semiconductors. In more detail, we study a two-level system for electrons and holes endowed with an intermediate energy level for electrons occupying trapped states. As our main result, we establish an explicit functional inequality between relative entropy and entropy production, which leads to exponential convergence to equilibrium. We stress that our approach is applied uniformly in the lifetime of electrons on the trap level assuming that this lifetime is sufficiently small.

math.AP↗

arXiv2019

Variance reduction for effective energies of random lattices in the Thomas-Fermi-von Weizsäcker model

In the computation of the material properties of random alloys, the method of "special quasirandom structures" attempts to approximate the properties of the alloy on a finite volume with higher accuracy by replicating certain statistics of the random atomic lattice in the finite volume as accurately as possible. In the present work, we provide a rigorous justification for a variant of this method in the framework of the Thomas-Fermi-von Weizsäcker (TFW) model. Our approach is based on a recent analysis of a related variance reduction method in stochastic homogenization of linear elliptic PDEs and the locality properties of the TFW model. Concerning the latter, we extend an exponential locality result by Nazar and Ortner to include point charges, a result that may be of independent interest.

math.AP↗

arXiv2018

New optimal control problems in density functional theory motivated by photovoltaics

We present and study novel optimal control problems motivated by the search for photovoltaic materials with high power-conversion efficiency. The material must perform the first step: convert light (photons) into electronic excitations. We formulate various desirable properties of the excitations as mathematical control goals at the Kohn-Sham-DFT level of theory, with the control being given by the nuclear charge distribution. We prove that nuclear distributions exist which give rise to optimal HOMO-LUMO excitations, and present illustrative numerical simulations for 1D finite nanocrystals. We observe pronounced goal-dependent features such as large electron-hole separation, and a hierarchy of length scales: internal HOMO and LUMO wavelengths $<$ atomic spacings $<$ (irregular) fluctuations of the doping profiles $<$ system size.

math.OC↗

arXiv2018

Uniform convergence to equilibrium for a family of drift-diffusion models with trap-assisted recombination and the limiting Shockley--Read--Hall model

We consider a family of drift-diffusion-recombination systems, where the recombination of electrons and holes is facilitated by an intermediate energy-level for electrons in so-called trapped states. In particular, it has been proven in [GMS07] that the associated quasi-stationary state limit of an instantaneously fast trapped dynamics yields the famous Shockley--Read-Hall model for electron and hole recombination in semiconductor devices. The main result of this paper proves exponential convergence to equilibrium uniformly in the fast reaction limit for the drift-diffusion-recombination systems and the limiting Shockley-Read-Hall model. The proof applies the so-called entropy method and the key results is to establish an entropy-entropy production inequality uniformly in the fast reaction limit. Moreover, we prove existence of global solutions and show a-priori estimates, which are necessary to rigorously verify that solutions satisfy the entropy-entropy production law.

math.AP↗

arXiv2015

Dual simulation of finite density lattice QED at large mass

We discuss a mapping of lattice QED with two flavors and a chemical potential to dual variables, which are surfaces for the gauge fields and loops for the fermions. The gauge fields are completely dualized and the corresponding dual variables are integer valued plaquette occupation numbers with constraints that lead to a structure of surfaces that are either closed or bounded by fermion loops. The fermion loops are obtained from a resummed hopping expansion (large mass expansion) of the determinant of the Wilson-Dirac operator. The loops can come with both positive and negative signs. We identify a sub-class of loops, which we refer to as quasi-planar loops, where the total sign is positive. For this sub-class a dual Monte Carlo simulation is possible and we discuss its implementation and some results. In particular we address condensation phenomena at finite chemical potential.

hep-lat↗