# Sparse optimal control for fractional diffusion

## TL;DR

This paper develops a numerical method for solving an optimal control problem involving fractional diffusion, providing theoretical analysis and error estimates for the discretization scheme.

## Contribution

It introduces a novel approach by reformulating fractional diffusion as a Dirichlet-to-Neumann map and proposes a fully discrete scheme with proven error bounds.

## Key findings

- Existence, uniqueness, and regularity of solutions established.
- A truncation method for numerical approximation is proposed.
- Quasi-optimal error estimates for control and state variables derived.

## Abstract

We consider an optimal control problem that entails the minimization of a nondifferentiable cost functional, fractional diffusion as state equation and constraints on the control variable. We provide existence, uniqueness and regularity results together with first order optimality conditions. In order to propose a solution technique, we realize fractional diffusion as the Dirichlet-to-Neumann map for a nonuniformly elliptic operator and consider an equivalent optimal control problem with a nonuniformly elliptic equation as state equation. The rapid decay of the solution to this problem suggests a truncation that is suitable for numerical approximation. We propose a fully discrete scheme: piecewise constant functions for the control variable and first--degree tensor product finite elements for the state variable. We derive a priori error estimates for the control and state variables which are quasi--optimal with respect to degrees of freedom.