Non-convergence of the principal eigenvalue of elliptic operators for large advection

Abstract

This paper investigates the limit of the principal eigenvalue $\lambda (s)$ as $s\to +\infty$ for the following elliptic equation \begin{align*} -Δφ(x)-2s\mathbf{v}\cdot\nablaφ(x)+c(x)φ(x)=λ(s)φ(x), \quad x\in Ω \end{align*} in a bounded domain $\Omega \subset {\mathbb{R}}^d(d\ge 1)$ with the Neumann boundary condition. Previous studies have shown that under certain conditions on $\mathbf{v}$, $\lambda (s)$ converges as $s\to \infty$ (including cases where $\underset{s\to \infty }{\lim }\lambda (s)=\pm \infty$). This work constructs an example such that $\lambda (s)$ is divergent as $s\to +\infty$. This seems to be the first rigorous result demonstrating the non-convergence of the principal eigenvalue for second-order linear elliptic operators with some strong advection. As an application, we demonstrate that for the classical advection-reaction-diffusion model with advective velocity field $\mathbf{v}=\nabla m$, where $m$ is a potential function with infinite oscillations, the principal eigenvalue changes sign infinitely often along a subsequence of $s\to \infty$. This leads to solution behaviors that differ significantly from those observed when $m$ is non-oscillatory.

22 pages, 1 figures