Approximate controllability for a 2D Grushin equation with potential having an internal singularity

TL;DR

This paper establishes approximate controllability for a 2D Grushin equation with an internal inverse square potential, using unique continuation, Fourier analysis, and Carleman estimates to handle the singularity and degeneracy.

Contribution

It introduces a novel approach to prove controllability for a degenerate and singular PDE with an internal inverse square potential, extending previous results to this complex setting.

Findings

Approximate controllability holds despite the singularity.

A new well-posedness framework with transmission conditions is developed.

Carleman estimates with Hardy inequalities are effectively applied.

Abstract

This paper is dedicated to approximate controllability for Grushin equation on the rectangle $(x,y) \in (-1,1) \times (0,1)$ with an inverse square potential. This model corresponds to the heat equation for the Laplace-Beltrami operator associated to the Grushin metric on $\mathbb{R}^2$, studied by Boscain and Laurent. The operator is both degenerate and singular on the line $\{ x=0 \}$. The approximate controllability is studied through unique continuation of the adjoint system. For the range of singularity under study, approximate controllability is proved to hold whatever the degeneracy is. Due to the internal inverse square singularity, a key point in this work is the study of well-posedness. An extension of the singular operator is designed imposing suitable transmission conditions through the singularity. Then, unique continuation relies on the Fourier decomposition of the 2D solution in one variable and Carleman estimates for the 1D heat equation solved by the Fourier components. The Carleman estimate uses a suitable Hardy inequality.