R E S E A R C H
Open Access
Existence and regularity of
time-dependent global attractors for the
nonclassical reaction-diffusion equations
with lower forcing term
Qiaozhen Ma
*, Xiaoping Wang and Ling Xu
*Correspondence:
[email protected] School of Mathematics and Statistics, Northwest Normal University, Lanzhou, Gansu 730070, China
Abstract
Based on the notation of time-dependent attractors, we prove the existence and the regularity of time-dependent global attractors for a class of nonclassical
reaction-diffusion equations when the forcing termg(x)∈H–1() and the nonlinear
function satisfies the critical exponent growth, which is weaker than the conditions used in (Jing and Liu in Appl. Anal. 94(7):1439-1449, 2015).
MSC: 35B25; 37L30; 45K05
Keywords: nonclassical reaction-diffusion equations; time-dependent attractors; regularity
1 Introduction
Recently, Conti and Di Plinioet al.[–] presented the notation of time-dependent global attractors and studied the long-time behavior of the wave equations and oscillation equa-tions in the topology space equipped with the norm related to the time, respectively. Moti-vated by these results we investigate the existence and regularity of time-dependent global attractors for a class of nonclassical reaction-diffusion equations
⎧ ⎪ ⎪ ⎨ ⎪ ⎪ ⎩
ut–ε(t)ut–u+λu=f(u) +g(x), x∈,
u|∂= , t∈R,
u(x,τ) =uτ(x), t≥τ.
(.)
Hereis a bounded set ofRn(n≥) with smooth boundary∂.λ> ,τ∈R, andε(t) is a decreasing bounded function satisfying
lim
t→+∞ε(t) = , (.)
and there existsν> such that
sup t∈R
ε(t)+ε(t)≤ν. (.)
The nonlinearityf ∈C(R) withf() = , is assumed to satisfy the following conditions:
lim sup
|s|→∞
f(s)
s <λ, ∀s∈R, (.)
f(s)≤C +|s|n– , ∀s∈R, (.)
whereλis the first eigenvalue of –inH(),Cis a positive constant.
The nonclassical reaction-diffusion equation arises as a mathematical model to de-scribe physical phenomena, such as non-Newtonian flows, solid mechanics, and heat con-duction [–]. Aifantis provides a quite general approach for obtaining these equations (see [, ]).
Whenε(t) in (.) is only a positive constant, the long-time behavior of solutions for (.) has been extensively studied by several authors in [–] and the references therein. For instance, some authors obtained the existence of global(pullback) attractors of solutions for both the autonomous case [, , , , ] and the nonautonomous case [, , ]. Anh and Toan [] investigated the existence and upper semicontinuity of uniform attractor inH(RN) for this problem; besides, they also considered the case of singularly oscillating external forces onRN[]. The existence of exponential attractors was obtained in [, , ]. In the general case of a time dependence, to the best of our knowledge, only Ding and Liu [] proved the existence and regularity of time-dependent global attractors of (.) when the force termg∈L() (⊂R) and the nonlinear termf satisfies the
following conditions:
(i) lim sup
|s|→∞
f(s)
s <λ, ∀s∈R,
(ii) f(s)≤C +|s|, ∀s∈R.
In this paper, following the general lines of the approach used in [–], we investigate the existence and regularity of the time-dependent attractors for the processU(t,τ) generated by (.) under weaker conditions than [].
2 Preliminaries
Without loss of generality, denoteH=L() with the inner products·,·and norms · .
For ≤σ≤, we define the hierarchy of compactly nested Hilbert spaces
Hσ =D A
σ
, w,vσ =Aσw,Aσv, wσ =Aσw.
Then, fort∈Rand –≤σ≤, we introduce the time-dependent spaces Hσ
t =Hσ+,
endowed with the time-dependent norms
uHσ
t =u
The symbolσ is always omitted whenever zero. In particular, the time-dependent phase space where we settle the problem is
H–
t =H=L, Ht=H, withuHt=u
+ε(t)u ,
then we have the compact embeddings
Hσ
t Ht, –≤σ< ,
with injection constants independent oft∈R. Note that the spacesHtare all the same as linear spaces; besides, sinceε(t) is a decreasing function oft, for everyu∈Handt≥τ∈R
we have
uHt≤ uHτ ≤max
,ε(τ)
ε(t)
uHt.
Hence the normsu
Htandu
Hτare equivalent for any fixedt,τ∈R, but the equivalent
constant blows up whent→+∞.
3 The main results
3.1 A prioriestimates
Under the assumptions of (.)-(.), ifg∈H–(), then using the standard Galerkin
ap-proximation method ([]), we can obtain the result concerning the existence and unique-ness of solution for the problem (.); see, for example, [, , ]. Thus, based on the sub-sequent Lemma . we get the following results.
Lemma . Assume that(.)-(.)hold,for any uτ ∈Hτ,there is a unique solution u of (.)satisfying
u∈C [τ,t],H
.
Furthermore,let ui(τ)∈Hτbe two initial conditions such thatui(τ)Hτ≤R(i= , )and
denote by ui(t)the corresponding solutions to the problem(.).Then the following estimate holds:
u(t) –u(t)Ht≤eK(t–τ)u(τ) –u(τ)Hτ, ∀t≥τ, (.)
for some constant K=K(R) > .
Proof We only need to prove the estimate (.). Let C be a generic positive constant depending onRbut independent ofui(τ). We first observe that the energy estimate in Lemma . below ensures
U(t,τ)ui(τ)H
t≤C, i= , . (.) We writeui(t) =U(t,τ)ui(τ),u=U(t,τ)u(τ) –U(t,τ)u(τ). Then the difference between
the two solutions satisfies
with initial datumu(τ) =u(τ) –u(τ). Multiplying by uinL() we obtain
d dtu
Ht+ λu+ –ε
(t)u =
f(u) –f(u),u
.
Combining with the embedding H()→Ln/(n–)(n≥), and according to (.) and
(.), we have
f(u) –f(u),u
=
f(u) –f(u)
udx=
f θu+ ( –θ)u
uudx
≤C
+|u|n– |u|dx≤C
+|u|n– n
n
·
|u|·n–n n–
n
≤C +u/(Ln/(n–)n–)
uLn/(n–)≤Cu.
Thus, we end up with the differential inequality
d dtu
Ht≤Cu
Ht,
and an application of the Gronwall lemma on [τ,t] completes the proof.
By means of the Lemma ., a family of maps witht≥τ∈R
U(t,τ) :Hτ→Ht acting asU(t,τ)uτ=u(t),
define a strongly continuous process on a family of spaces{Ht}t∈R.
Lemma . Assume that(.)-(.)hold.For any uτ ∈Hτ,t≥τ,let U(t,τ)uτ be the
solu-tion of(.)with initial value uτ.Then there is a positive constant K,such that U(t,τ)uτH
t≤K, ∀t≥τ.
Proof Multiplying (.) by u+ utinHwe obtain
d dt
( +λ)u+ +ε(t)u– F(u), – g,u
+ λu+ –ε(t)u– f(u),u– g,u+ ut+ ε(t)ut= . (.)
Let
E(t) = ( +λ)u+ +ε(t)u– F(u), – g,u,
I(t) = λu+ –ε(t)u– f(u),u– g,u, it yields
d
namely
E(t)≤– t
τ
I(s)ds+E(τ),
where
E(τ) = ( +λ)uτ+ +ε(τ)
uτ–
F(uτ),
– g,uτ.
In view of the condition (.), there are <ν< andc≥, such that
F(u), ≤( –ν)u+c, (.)
f(u),u≤( –ν)u+c, ∀u∈H. (.)
Thus, combining with (.), (.), and (.), there exist two positive constantsMandM,
such that
E(t)≥( +λ)u+ +ε(t)u– ( –ν)u–c–
νg
H––
ν
u
≥λu+
ν
+ε(t)
u–M,
and
I(t)≥λu+ –ε(t)u– ( –ν)u– c–
νg
H––
ν
u
≥λu+
ν
+ε(t)
u–M.
So we deduce that
λu(t)+
ν
+ε(t)
u(t)–M
≤– t
τ
λu(s)+
ν
+ε(s)
u(s)–M
ds+E(τ).
Therefore, for anyK>M, there existst>τsuch that
λu(t)
+
ν
+ε(t)
u(t) ≤K.
As a result, ifuis a solution of the systems (.), if we letBt=
t≥τU(t,τ)Bτ, where
Bτ =
uτ∈Bτ(R) :λuτ+
ν
+ε(τ)
uτ≤K
,
On the other hand, from the above discussion, for everyR≥ there exist positive con-stantsμandt=t(R) such that
λu(t)+ +ε(t)u(t)≤μ, ∀τ≤t–t. (.)
3.2 The time-dependent global attractors and regularity
The main result concerning the asymptotic behavior of problem (.) is contained in the following theorem.
Theorem . The process U(t,τ)generated by problem(.)admits an invariant time-dependent global attractorU={At}t∈RinHt.Besides,Atis bounded inHt,with a bound
independent of t.
In order to show that the process is asymptotically compact, we shall exhibit a pullback attracting family of (non-void) compact sets. For this purpose, we exploit a suitable de-composition of the process in the sum of a decaying part and of a compact one.
.. The decomposition
Under the conditions (.)-(.), like in [] we writef =f+f, wheref,f∈C(R) fulfill,
respectively, for somek≥, f(s)≤C +|s|
n+
n–, ∀s∈R, (.)
f(s)s≤, ∀s∈R, (.)
f(s)≤C +|s|γ
, ∀s∈R, <γ <n+
n– , (.)
lim sup
|s|→∞
f(s)
s <λ, ∀s∈R. (.)
Since the injectioni:L()→H–() is dense, we know that for everyg∈H–() and
anyη> , there is agη∈L() which depends ongandηsuch that
g–gη
H–<η. (.)
LetB={Bt(R)}t∈Rbe a time-dependent absorbing set as in Lemma . and letτ ∈R be fixed. Then, for anyuτ∈Bτ(R), we divideU(t,τ)uτ into the sum
U(t,τ)uτ=u(t) =U(t,τ)uτ+U(t,τ)uτ,
where
U(t,τ)uτ =vη(t), U(t,τ)uτ =wη(t),
respectively, solve the following systems: ⎧
⎨ ⎩
vηt +ε(t)Avtη+Avη+λvη=f
(vη) +g–gη, x∈, U(τ,τ) =uτ,
and ⎧ ⎨ ⎩
wηt +ε(t)Aw η
t +Awη+λwη=f(u) –f(vη) +gη, x∈. U(τ,τ) = ,
(.)
In the following, the generic constantC≥ depends only onB.
Lemma . Under the conditions(.)-(.),there exist two constantsδ> and K> such that
U(t,τ)uτH t≤Ce
–δ(t–τ)+K
, ∀t≥τ. Proof Multiplying (.) by vηinHwe obtain
d dtv
η
+ε(t)vη+ λvη+ –ε(t)vη= f vη
+g–gη,vη.
By (.), we have
f vη
,vη=
f vη
vηdx≤,
and using the Cauchy and Young inequalities we get
g–gη,vη≤g–gηH–v η
H≤g–g η
H–+v η
.
In view of (.) we get –ε(t)≥ε(t) > , thus we find
d dt ε(t)v
η+vη
+ λvη+ε(t)vη
≤η .
Takingδ=min{λ, }> , then
d
dtU(t,τ)uτ
Ht+δU(t,τ)uτ
Ht≤η
.
Applying the Gronwall lemma on the interval [τ,t] witht≥τ, it follows that U(t,τ)uτH
t≤ uτ
Hτe
–δ(t–τ)+η/δ.
The proof is complete.
Summing up, the following uniform boundedness holds:
sup t≥τ
U(t,τ)uτH
t+U(t,τ)uτHt+U(t,τ)uτHt
≤C. (.)
In order to prove our further result, we also need the condition
lim sup
|s|→∞ f (s) <λ
Lemma . Under the conditions(.)-(.)and(.),there exists M=M(B) > such that
sup t≥τ
U(t,τ)uτH/ t ≤M.
Proof Multiplying (.) by A/wηinHwe have
d dtw
η
/+ε(t)w
η
/
+ λwη/+ –ε(t)wη/
= f(u) –f vη
+gη,A/wη
= f(u) –f vη,A/wη+ f
vη
,A/wη+ gη,A/wη.
Using the Young equality, it leads to
f(u) –f vη,A/wη=
f(u) –f vηA/wηdx
≤
f u–θ u–vηu–vηA/wηdx
≤C
wηA/wηdx≤CwηA/wη≤C+ w
η
/.
Since(nn–)+γ < , from (.) it follows that
f vη
,A/wη
≤C
+vηγA/wηdx≤C
+vηγ
n n+
n+ n
A/wη
n n–
n– n
≤C +vηγLnγ/(n+)A/w η
Ln/(n–)≤C +v ηγ
A /wη
≤Cwη/≤C+ w
η
/,
where we have used the embeddingH=D(A
)→Ln–n with the facts that nγ
n+≤ n n–and H/=D(A/)→L
n
n–. Moreover, making use of the embeddingH/⊂L/(), we have gη,A/wη≤gηL/A/wηL/≤Cgηwη/≤Cgη
+ w
η /.
As a result, we deduce
d dt w
η
/+ε(t)wη/
+ λwη
/+ –ε(t)
wη /≤C.
Using –ε(t)≥ε(t) > , we conclude
d dt w
η
/+ε(t)w
η /
+ λwη/+ε(t)wη/≤C. Takingδ=min{λ, }> , we have
d
dtU(t,τ)uτ
Ht+δU(t,τ)uτ
Applying the Gronwall lemma on the interval [τ,t] witht≥τwe obtain U(t,τ)uτ
H/
t ≤ uτ
H/
τ e
–δ(t–τ)+C/δ.
The proof is complete.
.. Existence of the invariant attractor
In line with the Lemma ., we consider a family ofK={Kt}t∈R, where
Kt=
u(t)∈H/t :u(t)H/ t ≤M
.
It is clear thatKt is compact since embeddingH/t Ht is compact; besides, since the injection constants are independent oft,Kis uniform. Finally, Lemma ., Lemma ., and Lemma . imply thatKis pullback attracting; indeed,
δt Bτ(R),Kt
≤Ce–δ(t–τ), ∀t≥τ,
whereδt(B,C) is the Hausdorff semidistance of two nonempty setsB,C.
Hence the processU(t,τ) is asymptotically compact, which proves the existence of the unique time-dependent global attractorU={At}t∈R. The invariance ofUfollows by the strong continuity of the process stated in Lemma ..
.. Regularity of the attractor
The minimality ofUinKestablishes thatAt⊂Ktfor allt∈R. Therefore, we immediately obtain the following regularity result.
Lemma . Atis bounded inH/t (with a bound independent of t).
To prove that At is uniformly bounded inHt, as claimed in Theorem ., we argue as follows. Fix τ ∈R, for uτ ∈Aτ, we split the solutionU(t,τ)uτ =u(t) into the sum
U(t,τ)uτ +U(t,τ)uτ, whereU(t,τ)uτ =vη(t) andU(t,τ)uτ =wη(t), instead of (.)-(.), solving, respectively,
⎧ ⎨ ⎩
vηt +ε(t)Av η
t +Avη+λvη=g–gη, x∈,
U(τ,τ) =uτ,
(.)
⎧ ⎨ ⎩
wηt +ε(t)Awηt +Awη+λwη=f(u) +gη, x∈,
U(τ,τ) = .
(.)
As a particular case of Lemma ., we know that U(t,τ)uτH
t ≤Ce
–δ(t–τ)+η/δ, ∀t≥τ. (.)
Lemma . Under the assumptions(.)-(.),the following estimate holds:
sup t≥τ
U(t,τ)uτH t ≤M
Proof Multiplying (.) by AwηinHwe obtain
d dtw
η
+ε(t)w
η
+ λwη+ –ε(t)wη= f(u) +gη,Awη.
Together with embeddingsH()→L(), Lemma ., and (.), we have
f(u),Awη=
f(u)∇u·A/wηdx≤λ
∇u·A/wηdx
≤λ∇uA/wη≤C+
w
η
,
gη,Awη≤gηAwη≤gη+ w
η .
Therefore, we conclude
d
dt w
η
+ε(t)w
η
+ λwη+ –ε(t)wη≤C.
From (.) we have –ε(t)≥ε(t) > , so we deduce
d
dtU(t,τ)uτ H
t+δ
U(t,τ)uτ
H
t≤C.
Applying the Gronwall lemma on the interval [τ,t] witht≥τ, we obtain U(t,τ)uτ
H
t≤ uτ
H
τe
–δ(t–τ)+C/δ.
The proof is complete.
Proof of Theorem. For allt∈R, inequality (.) and Lemma . imply that
lim
τ→–∞δt U(t,τ)Aτ,K
t
= ,
where
Kt=u(t)∈Ht:u(t)H t≤M
.
SinceUis invariant, this means
δt At,Kt
= .
Hence,At⊂Kt=Kt; that is,Atis bounded inHt with a bound independent oft∈R.
Competing interests
The authors declare that they have no competing interests.
Authors’ contributions
Acknowledgements
This work was partly supported by the NSFC (11561064, 11361053) and the NSF of Gansu Province (145RJZA112), in part by the Fundamental Research Funds of Gansu Universities.
Received: 21 October 2015 Accepted: 30 December 2015 References
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