Investigation of Well-Posedness for a Direct Problem for a Nonlinear Fractional Diffusion Equation and an Inverse Problem

Abstract

In this paper, we consider a direct problem and an inverse problem involving a nonlinear fractional diffusion equation, which can be applied to many physical situations. The equation contains a Caputo fractional derivative, a symmetric uniformly elliptic operator and a source term consisting of the sum of two terms, one of which is linear and the other is nonlinear. The well-posedness of the direct problem is examined and the results are used to investigate the stability of an inverse problem of determining a function in the linear part of the source. The main tools in our study are the generalized eigenfunction expansions theory for nonlinear fractional diffusion equations, contraction mapping, Young’s convolution and generalized Grönwall’s inequalities. We present a stability estimate for the solution of the inverse source problem by means of observation data at a given point in the domain.

Keywords

• nonlinear fractional diffusion equation
• fixed point theory
• direct problem
• inverse problem
• stability