A piston to counteract diffusion: The influence of an inward-shifting boundary on the heat equation in half-space

Fuente: arXiv
Salvato in:
Dettagli Bibliografici
Autori principali: Tréton, Samuel, Zhang, Mingmin
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2025
Soggetti:
Accesso online:
Tags: Aggiungi Tag
Nessun Tag, puoi essere il primo ad aggiungerne!!
_version_ 1866909602368454656
author Tréton, Samuel
Zhang, Mingmin
author_facet Tréton, Samuel
Zhang, Mingmin
contents To better understand how populations respond to dynamic external pressure, we propose a new diffusion model in the moving half-line {z $\ge$ b(t)}, where the boundary position b(t) is a given nondecreasing function of time. A Robin boundary condition is imposed at z = b(t) to prevent individuals from leaving the domain, so that the shifting boundary acts as an impermeable wall-a ''piston''-that sweeps the individuals it encounters. Our analysis focuses on the cases where b(t) $\sim$ ct^$β$ with $β$ $\in$ [0, 1]. We prove quantitative convergence results characterized by attraction toward self-similar profiles, based on entropy techniques and Duhamel's principle. When $β$ goes through the critical value 1/2, the shape of the self-similar asymptotic profile switches from Gaussian to exponential. In particular, this profile turns out to be stationary when $β$ = 1, reflecting a delicate balance between diffusion and advection induced by the moving boundary.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2505_03304
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle A piston to counteract diffusion: The influence of an inward-shifting boundary on the heat equation in half-space
Tréton, Samuel
Zhang, Mingmin
Analysis of PDEs
To better understand how populations respond to dynamic external pressure, we propose a new diffusion model in the moving half-line {z $\ge$ b(t)}, where the boundary position b(t) is a given nondecreasing function of time. A Robin boundary condition is imposed at z = b(t) to prevent individuals from leaving the domain, so that the shifting boundary acts as an impermeable wall-a ''piston''-that sweeps the individuals it encounters. Our analysis focuses on the cases where b(t) $\sim$ ct^$β$ with $β$ $\in$ [0, 1]. We prove quantitative convergence results characterized by attraction toward self-similar profiles, based on entropy techniques and Duhamel's principle. When $β$ goes through the critical value 1/2, the shape of the self-similar asymptotic profile switches from Gaussian to exponential. In particular, this profile turns out to be stationary when $β$ = 1, reflecting a delicate balance between diffusion and advection induced by the moving boundary.
title A piston to counteract diffusion: The influence of an inward-shifting boundary on the heat equation in half-space
topic Analysis of PDEs
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2505.03304