Existence theory for gradient flows
we start off byrecalling some preliminary definitions
Definition I Let c X Hux 0 be a Gelfand triple and let us fix a moEW
Furthermore let us consider a functional I X IR Freshet differentiable
with Freichetdifferential DI We say that a Efc Coot X is a solution to the
H gradient flow for I if I e I e coots x and
detour t estructour 0 for all N E X and almostevery feat
x x x
x
nd ee Coo No
Definition 11 semicoercive functional
Let C X H X be a Gelfandtriple Afunctional I X IR is said to besemicoercive if
there exists c or and czEIR such that
I Cro 7 Citrus cullviper for all u EX
To construct a solution to the gradient flow problem wefollow Rothe's method
In the first place we consider an implicit time discretization of the trinederivative
and we establish existence of approximations Namely we have the following proposition
Proposition CJmplicit Euler scheme
Let ex H x be a Gelfand triple and let X IR be lowersemicontinuous and
semicoercive functional N f 7
Then for
every T so such that 44oz L and K l
NK i 112N
the functionals a Ik cus n Icu with no no
haveminimers that satisfy dguk v DI reeks cus O HN E X
µ
and dguk e cute nie l
Ip
The ez appearing in 4TCz 1 refers for the ez in thedefinitionof semicoercivity of I
Proof Fromtheassumptions made abovewededuce that I Kcmo is a coercivefunctional Intact
nuns culinity
Ikea I Hu nk l
2T
t I cud z
2
Hee ar Iff te
if c EO CHURN 7,0 Itecud ogc unify callWfp 3 c IIhis
It is boundedfrombelow
and it is coercive
ref is so Ik cus I 2
Hee ar Iff te nails annuity
g 2oz Ya uh 1112N to 11h45 callNfu
scufinifutoute Itu 2 Lee uh to null CzilulRu
I f
2 Cwlink Iff t 26211WRN yousee uh I µ to Hull Czkmiffy
7,2oz link 112µ t 2ozHulky 4ozHullµflute fly to Nulty eztuff
920211we ifµ 4callallµlink IIµ to 11m11s t callmiff
72oz link iffy calmsnullg him iink ily to Nultytwinifu
72callute lift 2µ 46211we Iff t e nUNITczµ2w
Sy
c 11h11 2 Cz link I 112N
From this we obtain that when ou 0
Ik r w g c Nulty 20211we Ifw
Hence Ike us too and Ike us is boundedfrombelow and moreover Iki's
Hull too
weakly lowersemicontinuous Therefore fromthe directmethodof calculusof variations
we obtain the
existence
of a minimiser uh for IR
Since I and n un we 1112N are F r echef differentiable wededuce that
Uk satisfies
e l
t BI euro ero
O Fr e X
k w µ Oma
From the previous proposition we have obtained a sequence of minimisersLuteKelo N
which are a solution for the discretisedcalls'oretised intime gradientflow
Gnorder to conclude we need to prove two further results
i we need an a prioriestimates whichholdsuniformlyin T o so that we can
extract a convergentsubsequence ons T trO
the limit point of thesubsequence satisfies the gradientflowequation
Fororder to prove an a priori bound we needstrongerassumptionson the functional I
Definition ill Let r x N X be a Gelfandtriple Le f I X SIR be Freichefdifferent
functional we saythat SI X 0X is semicoercive andbounded if I peel too 4 0 ke
and e such that I
SIC u v z dyn riff Cz wtf tf r E X
and
HDICroll Idg itHull I Hu E X
Once this is in place wecanstate and prove the main result whichallows us to establish an
priori estimate for thesequence we eeeLo N
Proposition l A prioriestimates o Lef c x H x o be a Gelfandtriple left x IR be on
Fri chefdifferentiablefunctional and let us suppose that SI x x is semicoercive and bounded
If 4T e e l where c is the one appearing in Definitionill then wehavethat
N N N
we ex t T T Dermot Eco
III J H T
E E nd well
t
E
Where Co depends on p T no 4 CLandCj
Proof We knowthatluteSrego N are minimisersof the corresponding funotrinds
Ik cus
If u n un Iff t
I Iue respectively
Thus uk solves
If uk DI cute Cvo O H N E X
µ t w
Bysetting v nie andby using thesemicoercivity of SI weobtain
dguk we wt stink rules t
IldenteIlf t I dyIlunify t oflinklip ednullify E
Iz
IslidtukifutIdflinkIfn Is dear dear µ t funk112W link ily
nie r nee i
e nie un l we we I
µ
1 4 we we µ µ
lily uh we I t E linklifer
ET vwhiff toute z
2T
I nullify cuteuh I µ cute nk i we µ Ifweuh µ
Once this is in place we multiply the vis of b for T and sum over ie l P wit h
i e e eN As a result we obtain
I e
Indentelf tei f e nwerP Tch interfere 0 ee Pe N
t nullify truth Tag w X
K4
wherewehaveusedthe following fact abouttelescopic sums
Harith ruleinn fineIif nwo
delinkifu
If
Byrearranging the addends we obtain
1 linen
2
t t Indemnify to it finnienf stringenttea purify
P
since od e I Tod Tc's
junkif
we
lift tea purify
Therefore term 1411UPIfµ can be absorbed on left handside obtaining
PI
e InnoirutTc's EIntern
f rueihr t Tef Etdealer t ofT req unn
f
For P o N we now set
I onether t dT linkup
ye
Fromthis wededuce that
PI
P off linkif I Innov2ut Tc Eyukky
y I neither t
ei
Filedif t 41e's E Irwelfy
bI
e Ennohut414 y
k
Therefore we havethat
ye e Inmolten tote's ik i see N
Byapplying the discrete Gronwalllemma we see that
Nl
Mat P e mother expC ago44cL
P lo N
y
mas
P t N
y
P
pm
b N
X
f'sonehut dt
E we
Max I line It off well
f
P I N
Therefore wefinally have
N
N
[Link]
I line It off turf statuary exe jotted
l N
L noir exp4Th N
t IN N
kit
n t 4T EN well s Inneifu e grunge
e nl
we reranthat N fNq therefore TIN 10 IT while TN DT
N
T and T dentelle remain tobe proven
Theboundfor E dem'll
Ynorderforddthat theboundednessof SI comes in ourhelp In fact
I troop citrate 0
T
E strut on e T E G's citrarip DP e
werecallthefollowingfact poop1 1 andthat off linkIlf I Hunkyet
ftip I o
e d Teej P I t linkup I w P TN t d top i
est E Nuteil f
l OP T f zP I r iz P I
I Il ruoff e44T
2
Therefore wehave obtained
strut on E d P 1
T tog T t
ruoffet
As for the term T nd well we use the estimate previouslyproven
we recall that cute is a solutionfor the discretised gradient flow namely
If we er 7 SI cute0 c u 0 0 Kv EX
H
Therefore Il d f URYya HDI cute011 8
Hence
N
of 11 DI cute011 I lost T t P's T
T dfuk11
if 2
runtye4
toes
In order to identify the limits of theapproximations wedefineinterpolants of
the approximations
Theinterpdants of LukSaefo canbe definedinthreealternativeways
n
Let set N and fee KT Keo N
Ig
us
l
n f Mk f E Cfee yofK K l N
p
mtg t Uk u f C fee tie Kel N
If it o
tI uk t t
T
we 1 Rsi N
r fer
as
n ut n
ng
I l l S l l l S l l l s
T 2T 3T T 2T3T T 2T3T
Ourgoalis totranslatethe a priori estimates for
ate
go ngf0
NT I and IT
Thisis thepurpose of the next Lemmon
Lemmon Discreteevolutionequation
If we let Uf et andthey be the interpolants defined above them we have
It Cts 7µF SI cuteto vs D Hr et and almostall fearTO
For all To the following estimate holds
htt ut pic T int wiretaps
t
[Link] cuttle're x 5 Coo
Proof
the derivative of fur is trifled MI MI delete of El tr r tr es N
T
letCfs Up f E eteegotµ test N
Therefore since ed we er secure cus O Fr E X Hk I ON
is
it follows that r µ DIR over D A NET andalmostallofECUT
oilyego
From the following estimate previouslyproven
N N N
Dermot Eco
max
P oI
Irwin
N
t T
E wellf t T
E nd well t T
ee
we deducethat
fTnutotonfdx et EIturtle eco
11upIly Co
sup
CCCo T
Nt
11 Holly e max
P outs N
Thus theuniformboundsforthe firsttwo addends are thus proven
As for the fourthterm we use the boundednessof DI
T
of horntail dt got4 it outgeton t'dt
T
e Cobo
I fit nut roll f dt
e se coff IT too
n
Since ilmyHolly II DI interfully we obtainthat
q
Itu TigreIly df 111strutrusty dt s d
coff f T t co
and
firing iton It
III ingreen dt
wenotethat IT can be alternativelywritten as I geto mtg f ofee f figCfd therefor
we obtain
el f
fell at Ho ite fo fig roll If
te i
pl I I
e s
af St natron it t
E Yen et improv at
se if int oI dttrEi I niiheooI dt
d i
f nutpetolp If t 2P Jatin still It
e I I t
supNuffHildy D i gotnutriton df
feast
Thus wehaveobtained
firing it on dfs d p tooth D Sotnutritonefadt
ts
T 11Mtfp I'tIlplc out XA
yzP
I n
soft N
And this completes the ants
a priori estimates for the interpol
To sum
up so far we haveproved that thelinterporlonts ut ng Ip satisfy
the following estrindJ uniformly in T o
htt [Link] at pre it int wiretaps ht re x 5 Coe
ABB
This bound for the Interpolants allow us for extract a convergent subsequence
which willbe the solution to a sort of gradientflow problem
The next proposition the proof forwhich is omitted gives a precise result
onwhat sense the interpolants convergetowards a limit point a and whatkind of
Gradient flow equation is satisfied
by u itself
Proposition selectionof a limit Let Ix H X I be a Gelfandtriple andlet us
further assume that X is compactly embeddediin It
Thenthere exists me RicoTJ X P
n w eco x and 3 ELP e Coo x suchthat
t N u LN
Up y in out w
To
a
u in LP Con x
T ut y o
Uf w in w Pecoots X
Tko
in ee e cops x
stint pyo
Moreover we havethat u e cccoots H and a is a solutionto
detourf t 3K0gr o Tve X foralmost all te Coo
2
are me
Gnaddition if z stew then u is a solution for the Gradient flowproblem for I
To sum up this scheme of proving the existence of a solutionforthe gradientflowproblem
for I can be described in four steps
discretised version
Id Yn the first place weprove the existence of a solution for a
of the gradient flow problem
I we provide on a prioribound satisfied by these solutions Such bound allows
us to extract a convergent subsequence as T to a
II we prove the limit point satisfies a generalised Gradient flow equationsuchasL2
IT Underfurther assumptions on thefunctional I it can be proven that the actual
Gradient flow equation for I is satisfied
References
e I havebased these notes on the file gradientflows available on the SMSTC web page
of the course
