Optimal control problems for quasi-linear parabolic equations and their linear approximations

Motivated by thermal diffusion models, a controlled quasi-linear parabolic equation can be formally replaced by its linear approximation, when the initial datum, target and control actions are sufficiently small. This paper makes this approximation precise at the level of optimal control problems. First, we provide verification criteria which distinguish whether an optimal control is an interior point or a boundary point of the admissible control set. We then prove that the differences between the optimal controls and the corresponding optimal trajectories for the quasi-linear and linear parabolic equations are higher-order infinitesimals with respect to the small initial datum and target appearing in the cost functional. Consequently, for small data, the optimal control problem governed by the quasi-linear equation can be approximated by the corresponding linear problem. In the interior-point case, the resulting approximation order is sharp.