A Nonlinear Nonlocal Problem for the Caputo Fractional Subdiffusion Equation

TL;DR

This paper investigates a nonlinear time-fractional subdiffusion equation with a nonlocal initial condition involving the unknown final state, establishing existence and uniqueness of solutions using fixed point methods.

Contribution

It introduces a novel analysis of a Caputo fractional subdiffusion problem with a nonlinear nonlocal initial condition involving the unknown final state.

Findings

Existence and uniqueness of solutions are proven.

Green function estimates are derived.

The influence of the Lipschitz constant on solvability is analyzed.

Abstract

In this paper, we study a time-fractional subdiffusion equation with a nonlinear nonlocal initial condition involving the unknown solution at the final time. The considered problem is formulated using the Caputo fractional derivative of order \(0 < \alpha < 1\), along with homogeneous Dirichlet boundary conditions. The nonlocal initial condition is of the form \( u(x,0) = g(x, u(x,T)) \), where \(g\) is a nonlinear function satisfying a Lipschitz condition. The main challenge arises from the implicit dependence on the unknown final state. Using an explicit representation of the solution in terms of the Green function and applying the Banach fixed point theorem, we establish the existence and uniqueness of a regular solution. We also provide uniform estimates for the Green function and analyze the influence of the Lipschitz constant on solvability.