English

A Wasserstein gradient flow approach to Poisson-Nernst-Planck equations

Analysis of PDEs 2015-09-08 v3

Abstract

The Poisson-Nernst-Planck system of equations used to model ionic transport is interpreted as a gradient flow for the Wasserstein distance and a free energy in the space of probability measures with finite second moment. A variational scheme is then set up and is the starting point of the construction of global weak solutions in a unified framework for the cases of both linear and nonlinear diffusion. The proof of the main results relies on the derivation of extra estimates based on the flow interchange technique developed by Matthes, McCann, and Savar\'e.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1501.04437,
  title  = {A Wasserstein gradient flow approach to Poisson-Nernst-Planck equations},
  author = {David Kinderlehrer and Léonard Monsaingeon and Xiang Xu},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1501.04437},
  year   = {2015}
}

Comments

updated version (proof of the main theorem fixed), accepted in ESAIM: Control, Optimisation and Calculus of Variations

R2 v1 2026-06-22T08:05:29.123Z