Bøker i PNLDE Subseries in Control-serien

This monograph presents controllability and stabilization methods in control theory that solve parabolic boundary value problems.

This monograph develops a framework for time-optimal control problems, focusing on minimal and maximal time-optimal controls for linear-controlled evolution equations. Its use in optimal control provides a welcome update to Fattorini¿s work on time-optimal and norm-optimal control problems. By discussing the best way of representing various control problems and equivalence among them, this systematic study gives readers the tools they need to solve practical problems in control. After introducing preliminaries in functional analysis, evolution equations, and controllability and observability estimates, the authors present their time-optimal control framework, which consists of four elements: a controlled system, a control constraint set, a starting set, and an ending set. From there, they use their framework to address areas of recent development in time-optimal control, including the existence of admissible controls and optimal controls, Pontryagin¿s maximum principle for optimal controls, the equivalence of different optimal control problems, and bang-bang properties.This monograph will appeal to researchers and graduate students in time-optimal control theory, as well as related areas of controllability and dynamic programming. For ease of reference, the text itself is self-contained on the topic of time-optimal control. Frequent examples throughout clarify the applications of theorems and definitions, although experience with functional analysis and differential equations will be useful.

This monograph presents controllability and stabilization methods in control theory that solve parabolic boundary value problems.

This monograph explores a dual variational formulation of solutions to nonlinear diffusion equations with general nonlinearities as null minimizers of appropriate energy functionals. The author demonstrates how this method can be utilized as a convenient tool for proving the existence of these solutions when others may fail, such as in cases of evolution equations with nonautonomous operators, with low regular data, or with singular diffusion coefficients. By reducing it to a minimization problem, the original problem is transformed into an optimal control problem with a linear state equation. This procedure simplifies the proof of the existence of minimizers and, in particular, the determination of the first-order conditions of optimality. The dual variational formulation is illustrated in the text with specific diffusion equations that have general nonlinearities provided by potentials having various stronger or weaker properties. These equations can represent mathematical modelsto various real-world physical processes. Inverse problems and optimal control problems are also considered, as this technique is useful in their treatment as well.

This monograph presents the most recent developments in the study of Hamilton-Jacobi Equations and control problems with discontinuities, mainly from the viewpoint of partial differential equations. Two main cases are investigated in detail: the case of codimension 1 discontinuities and the stratified case in which the discontinuities can be of any codimensions. In both, connections with deterministic control problems are carefully studied, and numerous examples and applications are illustrated throughout the text.After an initial section that provides a ¿toolbox¿ containing key results which will be used throughout the text, Parts II and III completely describe several recently introduced approaches to treat problems involving either codimension 1 discontinuities or networks. The remaining sections are concerned with stratified problems either in the whole space R^N or in bounded or unbounded domains with state-constraints. In particular, the use of stratified solutions to treat problems with boundary conditions, where both the boundary may be non-smooth and the data may present discontinuities, is developed. Many applications to concrete problems are explored throughout the text ¿ such as Kolmogorov-Petrovsky-Piskunov (KPP) type problems, large deviations, level-sets approach, large time behavior, and homogenization ¿ and several key open problems are presented.This monograph will be of interest to graduate students and researchers working in deterministic control problems and Hamilton-Jacobi Equations, network problems, or scalar conservation laws.