English

Regularity results for the minimum time function with H\"ormander vector fields

Optimization and Control 2017-05-30 v2 Analysis of PDEs

Abstract

In a bounded domain of Rn\mathbb{R}^n with smooth boundary, we study the regularity of the viscosity solution, TT, of the Dirichlet problem for the eikonal equation associated with a family of smooth vector fields {X1,,XN}\{X_1,\ldots ,X_N\}, subject to H\"ormander's bracket generating condition. Due to the presence of characteristic boundary points, singular trajectories may occur in this case. We characterize such trajectories as the closed set of all points at which the solution loses point-wise Lipschitz continuity. We then prove that the local Lipschitz continuity of TT, the local semiconcavity of TT, and the absence of singular trajectories are equivalent properties. Finally, we show that the last condition is satisfied when the characteristic set of {X1,,XN}\{X_1,\ldots ,X_N\} is a symplectic manifold. We apply our results to Heisenberg's and Martinet's vector fields.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1702.07618,
  title  = {Regularity results for the minimum time function with H\"ormander vector fields},
  author = {Paolo Albano and Piermarco Cannarsa and Teresa Scarinci},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1702.07618},
  year   = {2017}
}