Null controllability of a coupled model in population dynamics

Abstract

We are concerned with the null controllability of a linear coupled population dynamics system or the so-called prey-predator model with Holling type I functional response of predator wherein both equations are structured in age and space. It is worth mentioning that in our case, the space variable is viewed as the "gene type" of population. The studied system is with two different dispersion coefficients which depend on the gene type variable and degenerate in the boundary. This system will be governed by one control force. To reach our goal, we develop first a Carleman type inequality for its adjoint system and consequently the pertinent observability inequality. Note that such a system is obtained via the original paradigm using the Lagrangian method. Afterwards, with the help of a cost function we will be able to deduce the existence of a control acting on a subset of the gene type domain and which steers both populations of a certain class of age to extinction in a finite time.\looseness-2

Keywords

• degenerate population dynamics model
• lotka-volterra system
• carleman estimate
• observability inequality
• null controllability