Spending Operators and Weak Power-Port Decompositions for Path-Dependent Entropic Lagrangians
arXiv:2607.12860
The paper develops a mathematical framework for path‑dependent entropic Lagrangians, introducing spending operators and a weak power‑port decomposition that handle channelwise terminal variations and weak diffusion fields, and demonstrates the approach on a thermo‑diffusion functional and the Cahn–Hilliard equation.
Abstract
History-dependent entropic variational formulations require a calibrated terminal differential for accumulated power and a spatial power split that remains meaningful for weak diffusion fields. Endpoint calibration and cocycle additivity determine a unique oriented spending increment, while independent local selector fields give its distributional channel form. The diffusion identity for a potential-weighted flux is established at $H(\Div)$ regularity and extended to the finite-energy class through a distributional balance component. For regular diffusion models, the weighted species channel yields the local balance whenever persistent zero-potential states are dynamically isolated in the admissible state class. An independent multiplier extends the same balance to the natural weak space. These ingredients are assembled in one synchronized thermo-diffusion functional whose directional stationarity yields energetic and thermal conjugacy, species balance, flux closure, the entropy equation, and both terminal routing rules. A Cahn--Hilliard specialization verifies the construction at finite-energy regularity.
21 pages