Control of the Stefan problem in a periodic box

TL;DR

This paper proves local null-controllability of the one-phase Stefan problem with surface tension in a periodic strip, using Fourier analysis, spectral computations, and a fixed point argument, with implications for nonlinear free boundary problems.

Contribution

It introduces a novel controllability analysis for the Stefan problem in a periodic setting, including spectral characterization and uniform observability results for Fourier modes.

Findings

System is locally null-controllable in any positive time.

Full spectrum of the linearized operator for non-zero Fourier modes computed.

Controllability of the nonlinear system established via a fixed point approach.

Abstract

In this paper we consider the one-phase Stefan problem with surface tension, set in a two-dimensional strip-like geometry, with periodic boundary conditions respect to the horizontal direction $x_1\in\mathbb{T}$. We prove that the system is locally null-controllable in any positive time, by means of a control supported within an arbitrary open and non-empty subset. We proceed by a linear test and duality, but quickly find that the linearized system is not symmetric and the adjoint has a dynamic coupling between the two states through the (fixed) boundary. Hence, motivated by a Fourier decomposition with respect to $x_1$, we consider a family of one-dimensional systems and prove observability results which are uniform with respect to the Fourier frequency parameter. The latter results are also novel, as we compute the full spectrum of the underlying operator for the non-zero Fourier modes. The zeroth mode system, on the other hand, is seen as a controllability problem for the linear heat equation with a finite-dimensional constraint. The complete observability of the adjoint is derived by using a Lebeau-Robbiano strategy, and the local controllability of the nonlinear system is then shown by combining an adaptation of the source term method introduced in \cite{tucsnak_burgers} and a Banach fixed point argument. Numerical experiments motivate several challenging open problems, foraying even beyond the specific setting we deal with herein.