arXiv subjects

Nicola Zamponi

Publications and source records attributed to Nicola Zamponi.

40 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

arXiv2015

Analysis of degenerate cross-diffusion population models with volume filling

A class of parabolic cross-diffusion systems modeling the interaction of an arbitrary number of population species is analyzed in a bounded domain with no-flux boundary conditions. The equations are formally derived from a random-walk lattice model in the diffusion limit. Compared to previous results in the literature, the novelty is the combination of general degenerate diffusion and volume-filling effects. Conditions on the nonlinear diffusion coefficients are identified, which yield a formal gradient-flow or entropy structure. This structure allows for the proof of global-in-time existence of bounded weak solutions and the exponential convergence of the solutions to the constant steady state. The existence proof is based on an approximation argument, the entropy inequality, and new nonlinear Aubin-Lions compactness lemmas. The proof of the large-time behavior employs the entropy estimate and convex Sobolev inequalities. Moreover, under simplifiying assumptions on the nonlinearities, the uniqueness of weak solutions is shown by using the $H^{-1}$ method, the $E$-monotonicity technique of Gajewski, and the subadditivity of the Fisher information.

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arXiv2014

Boundedness of weak solutions to cross-diffusion systems from population dynamics

The global-in-time existence of nonnegative bounded weak solutions to a class of cross-diffusion systems for two population species is proved. The diffusivities are assumed to depend linearly on the population densities in such a way that a certain formal gradient-flow structure holds. The main feature of these systems is that the diffusion matrix may be neither symmetric nor positive definite. The key idea of the proof is to employ the boundedness-by-entropy principle which yields at the same time the existence of global weak solutions and their boundedness. In particular, the uniform boundedness of weak solutions to the population model of Shigesada, Kawasaki, and Teramoto in several space dimensions under certain conditions on the diffusivities is shown for the first time.

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arXiv2014

Analysis of a drift-diffusion model with velocity saturation for spin-polarized transport in semiconductors

A system of drift-diffusion equations with electric field under Dirichlet boundary conditions is analyzed. The system of strongly coupled parabolic equations for particle density and spin density vector describes the spin-polarized semi-classical electron transport in ferromagnetic semiconductors. The presence of a nonconstant and nonsmooth magnetization vector, solution of the Landau-Lifshitz equation, causes the diffusion matrix to be dependent from space and time and to have in general poor regularity properties, thus making the analysis challenging. To partially overcome the analytical difficulties the velocity saturation hypothesis is made, which results in a bounded drift velocity. The global-in-time existence and uniqueness of weak solutions is shown by means of a semi-discretization in time, which yields an elliptic semilinear problem, and a quadratic entropy inequality, which allow for the limit of vanishing time step size. The convergence of the weak solutions to the steady state, under some restrictions on the parameters and data, is shown. Finally the higher regularity of solutions for a smooth magnetization in two space dimensions is shown through a diagonalization argument, which allows to get rid of the cross diffusion terms in the fluid equations, and the iterative application of Gagliardo-Nirenberg inequalities and a generalized version of Aubin lemma.

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arXiv2013

Global existence analysis for degenerate energy-transport models for semiconductors

A class of energy-transport equations without electric field under mixed Dirichlet-Neumann boundary conditions is analyzed. The system of degenerate and strongly coupled parabolic equations for the particle density and temperature arises in semiconductor device theory. The global-in-time existence of weak nonnegative solutions is shown. The proof consists of a variable transformation and a semi-discretization in time such that the discretized system becomes elliptic and semilinear. Positive approximate solutions are obtained by Stampacchia truncation arguments and a new cut-off test function. Nonlogarithmic entropy inequalities yield gradient estimates which allow for the limit of vanishing time step sizes. Exploiting the entropy inequality, the long-time convergence of the weak solutions to the constant steady state is proved. Because of the lack of appropriate convex Sobolev inequalities to estimate the entropy dissipation, only an algebraic decay rate is obtained. Numerical experiments indicate that the decay rate is typically exponential.

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