Finite element analysis of a nonlinear heat Equation with damping and pumping effects

We study the following nonlinear heat equation with damping and pumping effects (a reaction-diffusion equation) posed on a bounded simply connected convex domain $\Omega \subset \mathbb{R}^d$, $d \geq 1$ with Lipschitz boundary $\partial\Omega$: $$\frac{\partial u(t)}{\partial t} - \nu \Delta u(t) + \alpha |u(t)|^{p-2}u(t) - \sum_{\ell=1}^M \beta_{\ell} |u(t)|^{q_{\ell}-2}u(t) = f(t), \quad t>0,$$ subject to homogeneous Dirichlet boundary conditions and the initial condition $u(0)=u_0$, where $2 \leq p < \infty$ and $2 \leq q_{\ell} < p$ for $1 \leq \ell \leq M$. For $u_0 \in L^2(\Omega)$ and $f \in L^2(0,T;H^{-1}(\Omega))$, we establish the existence and uniqueness of a weak solution for all dimensions $d \in \mathbb{N}$ and damping exponents $2 \leq p < \infty$. Furthermore, for $u_0 \in H^2(\Omega) \cap H_0^1(\Omega)$ and $f \in H^1(0,T;H^1(\Omega))$, we obtain regularity results: these hold for every $2 \leq p < \infty$ when $1 \leq d \leq 4$, and for $2 \leq p \leq \frac{2d-6}{d-4}$ when $d \geq 5$. We further conduct finite element analysis using conforming, nonconforming, and discontinuous Galerkin methods, deriving a priori error estimates for both semi- and fully discrete schemes, supported by numerical results. To relax restrictions on $p$ in the semidiscrete analysis, we use appropriate projection/interpolation operators: the Ritz projection in the conforming case ($2 \le p \le \frac{2d}{d-2}$), the Scott-Zhang interpolation for $\frac{2d}{d-2} < p \le \frac{2d-6}{d-4}$, the Cl\'ement interpolation in the nonconforming setting, and the $L^2$-projection in the DG framework. In the fully discrete case, error estimates hold for the above $p$-range under $u_0 \in D(A^{3/2})$ and $f \in H^1(0,T;H^1(\Omega))$.