[Math] Existence of solution for Poisson problem with pure Neumann BCs

ap.analysis-of-pdesfa.functional-analysis

Hello all,

Does the following boundary value problem admit unique solutions $q$:

$- \Delta q + \beta q = f$, $x \in \Omega$

$ \nabla q \cdot \vec{n} = g $, $x \in \Gamma := \partial \Omega$,

where $\beta > 0$ is reasonably small? I am not clear if the pure Neumann boundary conditions make the solution non-unique; does the inhomogeneity in the volume equation take care of this problem? What are the spaces for $f$ and $g$ such that we have uniqueness?

Best Answer

A weak form of your BVP is $a(q,v)=\ell(v)$ where $a(q,v)=\int_{\Omega}\nabla q\cdot\nabla v\,dx+\int_{\Omega}\beta qv\,dx$ and $\ell(v)=\int_{\Omega}fv\,dx+\int_{\partial\Omega}gv\,ds$ with $q,v\in H^1(\Omega)$. If $\beta>0$, the bilinear form is coercive and continuous in $H^1(\Omega)$. Thus, apply Lax-Milgram and you get existence, uniqueness and stability in $H^1(\Omega)$. Stability now depends on the value of $\beta$.

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