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Convergence of functionals and its applications to parabolic equations. (English) Zbl 1067.35015

Summary: Asymptotic behavior of solutions of some parabolic equation associated with the \(p\)-Laplacian as \(p\to+\infty\) is studied for the periodic problem as well as the initial-boundary value problem by pointing out the variational structure of the \(p\)-Laplacian, that is, \(\partial\varphi_p(u)=-\Delta_pu\), where \(\varphi_p:L^2(\Omega)\to[0, +\infty]\). To this end, the notion of Mosco convergence is employed and it is proved that \(\varphi_p\) converges to the indicator function over some closed convex set on \(L^2(\Omega)\) in the sense of Mosco as \(p \to+\infty\); moreover, an abstract theory relative to Mosco convergence and evolution equations governed by time-dependent subdifferentials is developed until the periodic problem falls within its scope. Further application of this approach to the limiting problem of porous-medium-type equations, such as \(u_t=\Delta|u|^{m-2}u\) as \(m \to+\infty\), is also given.

MSC:

35B40 Asymptotic behavior of solutions to PDEs
40A30 Convergence and divergence of series and sequences of functions
47J35 Nonlinear evolution equations
35K65 Degenerate parabolic equations
35K60 Nonlinear initial, boundary and initial-boundary value problems for linear parabolic equations
35A15 Variational methods applied to PDEs