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    Fast Reaction Limits via Γ-Convergence of the Flux Rate Functional
    (New York, NY [u.a.] : Springer Science + Business Media B.V., 2023) Peletier, Mark A.; Renger, D. R. Michiel
    We study the convergence of a sequence of evolution equations for measures supported on the nodes of a graph. The evolution equations themselves can be interpreted as the forward Kolmogorov equations of Markov jump processes, or equivalently as the equations for the concentrations in a network of linear reactions. The jump rates or reaction rates are divided in two classes; ‘slow’ rates are constant, and ‘fast’ rates are scaled as 1/ϵ, and we prove the convergence in the fast-reaction limit ϵ→0. We establish a Γ-convergence result for the rate functional in terms of both the concentration at each node and the flux over each edge (the level-2.5 rate function). The limiting system is again described by a functional, and characterises both fast and slow fluxes in the system. This method of proof has three advantages. First, no condition of detailed balance is required. Secondly, the formulation in terms of concentration and flux leads to a short and simple proof of the Γ-convergence; the price to pay is a more involved compactness proof. Finally, the method of proof deals with approximate solutions, for which the functional is not zero but small, without any changes.
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    Relating a Rate-Independent System and a Gradient System for the Case of One-Homogeneous Potentials
    (New York, NY [u.a.] : Springer Science + Business Media B.V., 2021) Mielke, Alexander
    We consider a non-negative and one-homogeneous energy functional J on a Hilbert space. The paper provides an exact relation between the solutions of the associated gradient-flow equations and the energetic solutions generated via the rate-independent system given in terms of the time-dependent functional E(t,u)=tJ(u) and the norm as a dissipation distance. The relation between the two flows is given via a solution-dependent reparametrization of time that can be guessed from the homogeneities of energy and dissipations in the two equations. We provide several examples including the total-variation flow and show that equivalence of the two systems through a solution dependent reparametrization of the time. Making the relation mathematically rigorous includes a careful analysis of the jumps in energetic solutions which correspond to constant-speed intervals for the solutions of the gradient-flow equation. As a major result we obtain a non-trivial existence and uniqueness result for the energetic rate-independent system.
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    Large Deviations of Continuous Regular Conditional Probabilities
    (New York, NY [u.a.] : Springer Science + Business Media B.V., 2016) van Zuijlen, W.
    We study product regular conditional probabilities under measures of two coordinates with respect to the second coordinate that are weakly continuous on the support of the marginal of the second coordinate. Assuming that there exists a sequence of probability measures on the product space that satisfies a large deviation principle, we present necessary and sufficient conditions for the conditional probabilities under these measures to satisfy a large deviation principle. The arguments of these conditional probabilities are assumed to converge. A way to view regular conditional probabilities as a special case of product regular conditional probabilities is presented. This is used to derive conditions for large deviations of regular conditional probabilities. In addition, we derive a Sanov-type theorem for large deviations of the empirical distribution of the first coordinate conditioned on fixing the empirical distribution of the second coordinate.
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    Stochastic proximal gradient methods for nonconvex problems in Hilbert spaces
    (New York, NY [u.a.] : Springer Science + Business Media B.V., 2021) Geiersbach, Caroline; Scarinci, Teresa
    For finite-dimensional problems, stochastic approximation methods have long been used to solve stochastic optimization problems. Their application to infinite-dimensional problems is less understood, particularly for nonconvex objectives. This paper presents convergence results for the stochastic proximal gradient method applied to Hilbert spaces, motivated by optimization problems with partial differential equation (PDE) constraints with random inputs and coefficients. We study stochastic algorithms for nonconvex and nonsmooth problems, where the nonsmooth part is convex and the nonconvex part is the expectation, which is assumed to have a Lipschitz continuous gradient. The optimization variable is an element of a Hilbert space. We show almost sure convergence of strong limit points of the random sequence generated by the algorithm to stationary points. We demonstrate the stochastic proximal gradient algorithm on a tracking-type functional with a L1 -penalty term constrained by a semilinear PDE and box constraints, where input terms and coefficients are subject to uncertainty. We verify conditions for ensuring convergence of the algorithm and show a simulation.
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    Traveling Fronts in a Reaction–Diffusion Equation with a Memory Term
    (New York, NY [u.a.] : Springer Science + Business Media B.V., 2022) Mielke, Alexander; Reichelt, Sina
    Based on a recent work on traveling waves in spatially nonlocal reaction–diffusion equations, we investigate the existence of traveling fronts in reaction–diffusion equations with a memory term. We will explain how such memory terms can arise from reduction of reaction–diffusion systems if the diffusion constants of the other species can be neglected. In particular, we show that two-scale homogenization of spatially periodic systems can induce spatially homogeneous systems with temporal memory. The existence of fronts is proved using comparison principles as well as a reformulation trick involving an auxiliary speed that allows us to transform memory terms into spatially nonlocal terms. Deriving explicit bounds and monotonicity properties of the wave speed of the arising traveling front, we are able to establish the existence of true traveling fronts for the original problem with memory. Our results are supplemented by numerical simulations.