1 Historical introduction

2 The main questions

3 Existence and uniqueness of the solution

4 Sketch of the proof of the main theorem

1 Historical introduction

2 The main questions

3 Existence and uniqueness of the solution

4 Sketch of the proof of the main theorem

 Historical introduction

There are two recurring questions arising when reflecting on the origin,
history and present of Mathematics. The first one is its incredible ability to
describe Nature, industrial and technological processes. The second one is
the unity and interconnections of all mathematical disciplines.

This talk is devoted to describing some of the gateways linking two

mathematical worlds, Control Theory and Biology, two neighboring valleys
of a very high technological impact, in the complex landscape of the universe
of mathematics.

Control theory certainly lies at the pedestal of these mathematical disciplines.

It was already anticipated by Aristotle when he claimed for the need to
automate processes to free human beings from the routine and heaviest tasks
that enslaved them.

Jean-Daniel Djida – Analysis of a local-nonlocal polymer chain model 4 / 37

 Historical introduction

MATHEMATICAL CONTROL THEORY,

or
CONTROL ENGINEERING
or simply
CONTROL THEORY?

An interdisciplinary field of research in between Mathematics and

Engineering with strong connections with Scientific Computing, Technology,
Communications, natural phenomena, etc.

Jean-Daniel Djida – Analysis of a local-nonlocal polymer chain model 5 / 37

 Historical introduction

The origin

How Aristotle Created the Computer

“· · · if every instrument could
accomplish its own work, obeying
or anticipating the will of others· · ·
if the shuttle weaved and the pick
touched the lyre without a hand to
guide them, chief workmen would
not need servants, nor masters
slaves.”
Chapter 3, Book 1, of the
Figure: https://www.theatlantic.com/technology
monograph “Politics” by Aristotle
(384-322 B. C.).
Main motivation: The need of automatizing processes to let the human
being gain in liberty, freedom, and quality of life.

Jean-Daniel Djida – Analysis of a local-nonlocal polymer chain model 6 / 37

 Historical introduction

Nowadays
• The state equation
A(y) = f(v)
• y is the state to be controlled.
• v is the control. It belongs to the set of admissible controls.
• Roughly speaking the goal is to drive the state y close to a desired state
yd :
y ∼ yd

Indeed, starting from a given initial state at time t = 0 we want to act on the
trajectories through a suitable control in order to match or get close to a
desired final state in time T > 0.
 dy

 dt = Ay + Bv, t ∈ [0, T ] - A : D(A) → H
y(0) = y0 - B ∈ L (U; D(A)∗ )


- v : control

Jean-Daniel Djida – Analysis of a local-nonlocal polymer chain model 7 / 37

 Historical introduction

In this general functional setting many different mathematical models feet:

• Linear or nonlinear problems;

• Deterministic or stochastic models;

• Finite dimensional or infinite dimensional models;

• Ordinary Differential Equations (ODE) or Partial Differential Equations

(PDE). And, of course, when facing complex real life processes, often,
hybrid models might also be needed.

Jean-Daniel Djida – Analysis of a local-nonlocal polymer chain model 8 / 37

 Historical introduction

Several kinds of different control problems may also feet in this frame
depending on how the control objective is formulated:

• Optimal control (related with the Calculus of Variations)

min ky − yd k2
v∈U

• Controllability: Drive exactly the state y to the prescribed one yd . This is

a more dynamical notion. Several relaxed versions also arise:
approximate controllability.

• Stabilization or feedback control. (real time control)

v = F(y); A(y) = f(F(y))

Here, the operator A can be a local or nonlocal operator.

Jean-Daniel Djida – Analysis of a local-nonlocal polymer chain model 9 / 37

 Historical introduction

Optimal Control Applications

What are some applications

1 Fluid dynamics: Improve drag reduction, lift increase, and noise
reduction in aeronautics.

2 Finance: Maximize profit given a level of risk tolerance.

3 Epidemiology: Effectively suppress a disease with constraints of sensing

(blood samples, clinics, etc.) and actuation (vaccines, bed nets, etc.).

4 Industry: Increasing productivity subject to constraints like labor and

work safety laws, and environment impact.

5 Autonomy and robotics: self-driving cars and autonomous robots is to

achieve a task while interacting safely with a complex environment,
including cooperating with human agents.

Jean-Daniel Djida – Analysis of a local-nonlocal polymer chain model 10 / 37

 Historical introduction

Standing point

Question
What does the mathematics of partial differential equations have to do with
biology?

Answer
• Mathematical equations can be used to model various biological
processes.
• While biologists build such equations, it is the job of mathematicians to
ensure that they are well posed, meaning that they admit reasonable
solutions and cannot lead to non-physical predictions. In this talk we

aim to describe some recent results on the well-posedness of a particular

equation modelling the behaviour of polymer chains.

Jean-Daniel Djida – Analysis of a local-nonlocal polymer chain model 11 / 37

 Historical introduction

Local-nonlocal models of polymer chains

Consider a polymer chain of total length T moving inside a bounded domain
Ω ⊂ RN (N > 1) that contains some fluid. We measure the distance of a
point along the chain from one of its ends using a variable t, with t = 0 and
t = T being the two opposite ends of the chain.

Figure: Sketch of a polymer chain (black curved line) of length T in a domain Ω. The
variable t measures the distance from the left endpoint of the chain (t = 0).

Jean-Daniel Djida – Analysis of a local-nonlocal polymer chain model 12 / 37

 Historical introduction

local-nonlocal Polymer chain model

Semilinear complement value problem

• Let Ω be an open bounded domain in RN (N > 1). For T > 0, we
consider the following parabolic nonlocal problem with Dirichlet
complement value:


ˆ T 

∂t u + L u + ϕ u(·, τ) dτ u = 0 in ΩT B Ω × (0, T ),

0

 u=0 in Σ B (RN \ Ω) × (0, T ),

u(·, 0) = u
0 in Ω,
(1)

where u = u(x, t) is an unknown scalar function, and ϕ a scalar function

that will be specified below.

Jean-Daniel Djida – Analysis of a local-nonlocal polymer chain model 13 / 37

 Historical introduction

Assumptions on the the potential ϕ

At first, we formulate conditions on the potential ϕ which will be fulfilled

Assumption 1
The potential ϕ : R → [0, +∞) is a continuous non-negative function such that
ϕ(0) = 0 and s 7→ ϕ(s)s is a non-decreasing differentiable function whose
derivative is bounded on every compact subset of R.

2|s| + sinh |s|

Figure: [V.N. Starovoitov, 2020]:Examples of the potential: ϕ(s) = .
cosh |s|

Jean-Daniel Djida – Analysis of a local-nonlocal polymer chain model 14 / 37

 Historical introduction

Remark 2
´T
1 The nonlocal term ϕ( 0 u dτ), instead, appears because each point
along the polymer chain produces an energy field around it, hence it
interacts with every other point in the chain through a so-called
interaction potential ϕ.

2 In (1), it is worthwhile noticing that the interaction potential ϕ is, in

general, not convex and not everywhere increasing. Besides that, we do
not require that the solution is positive and bounded.

3 Generally speaking, equation (1) has features unusual for parabolic

equations. First of all, the causality principle is violated. The state of the
system depends not only on the past but also on the future. It is also
nonlocal in space.

Jean-Daniel Djida – Analysis of a local-nonlocal polymer chain model 15 / 37

 Historical introduction

Nonlocal operator of Lévy type L

In (1), the operator L physically represents the effects of possible ‘jumps’ in

the location of points along the polymer chain due its sudden
reconfiguration.
ˆ
L u(x) B P.V. (u(x) − u(y))µ(x − y) dy, (x ∈ RN ), (2)
RN

where ‘P.V.’ stands for the Cauchy principal value. Here, the function

µ : RN \ {0} → [0, ∞] is positive and measurable such that

ˆ
µ(−h) = µ(h) for all h ∈ R N
and (1 ∧ |h|2 )µ(h) dh < ∞. (3)
RN

Notationally, for a, b ∈ R we write a ∧ b to denote min(a, b).

Jean-Daniel Djida – Analysis of a local-nonlocal polymer chain model 16 / 37

 Historical introduction

Brownian motion → 2nd order PDEs

Expected payoff at ∂Ω u(x) = E (φ(Bxτ0 )) = E(pay off)

∂Ω solves:
Ω

 ∆u = 0, in Ω,
Bxτ0

u=φ on ∂Ω.
φ : ∂Ω → R
x0

• Bxt 0 : Brownian motion in RN

starting at x0 ;

∆ is a local operator, that • τ: stopping time: first time at

is: supp [∆u] ⊂ supp[u] which Bxt 0 hits ∂Ω;

Jean-Daniel Djida – Analysis of a local-nonlocal polymer chain model 17 / 37

 Historical introduction

Lévy process → Integro-differential equations

Expected payoff at RN \ Ω u(x) = E (φ(Xxτ0 )) = E(pay off)

solves:
Xxτ0 
Ω
 L u = 0, in Ω,

φ : RN \ Ω → R u=φ on RN \ Ω.
x0
• Xxt 0 Lévy process with
discontinuous sample paths.
• τ: first time at which Xxt 0 is in
L is nonlocal, that is: supp L u * supp [u] RN \ Ω.
 

Jean-Daniel Djida – Analysis of a local-nonlocal polymer chain model 18 / 37

 Historical introduction

Some necessary function spaces

Let Ω ⊂ RN is an open bounded set. We also assume that
µ : RN \ {0} → [0, ∞] has full support, satisfies the Lévy integrability
condition, i.e., µ ∈ L1 (RN , 1 ∧ |h|2 dh) and is symmetric, i.e., µ(h) = µ(−h)
for all h ∈ RN .
We define the space

Vµ (Ω|RN ) B u : RN → R meas : E(u, u) < ∞ , (4)

where E(·, ·) is the bilinear form defined by

¨
1
E(u, v) B (u(x) − u(y))(v(x) − v(y))µ(x − y) dy dx (5)
2
Q(Ω)

and Q(Ω) is the cross-shaped set on Ω given by

Q(Ω) B (Ω × Ω) ∪ (Ω × (RN \ Ω)) ∪ ((RN \ Ω) × Ω).

Jean-Daniel Djida – Analysis of a local-nonlocal polymer chain model 19 / 37

 Historical introduction

We endow the space Vµ (Ω|RN ) with the norm

ˆ  12
kukVµ (Ω|RN ) B |u(x)|2 dx + E(u, u) .
Ω

Remark 3
• We point out that the notation Vµ (Ω|RN ) is to emphasize that the
integral of the measurable map (x, y) 7→ (u(x) − u(y))2 µ(x − y)
performed over Ω × RN is finite.

• From the local scenario point of view, it is fair to see the space Vµ (Ω|RN )
as the nonlocal replacement of the classical Sobolev space H1 (Ω).

Jean-Daniel Djida – Analysis of a local-nonlocal polymer chain model 20 / 37

 Historical introduction

In order to study the Dirichlet problem (1) we also need to define the
subspace of functions in Vµ (Ω|RN ) that vanishes on the complement of Ω,
i.e., 
Xµ (Ω|RN ) = u ∈ Vµ (Ω|RN ) : u = 0 a.e. on RN \ Ω ,
where Vµ (Ω|RN ) is defined as in (4).

The space Xµ (Ω|RN ) is clearly a closed subspace of Vµ (Ω|RN ). Furthermore,

we have that
 ¨  21
kukXµ (Ω|RN ) = (u(x) − u(y))2 µ(x − y) dy dx
RN RN

defines an equivalent norm on Xµ (Ω|RN ). Indeed, in virtue of the

Poincaré–Friedrichs inequality on Xµ (Ω|RN ), there exists a constant
C = C(N, Ω, µ) > 0 depending only on N, Ω and µ such that

kukL2 (Ω) 6 CkukXµ (Ω|RN ) for every u ∈ Xµ (Ω|RN ). (6)

Jean-Daniel Djida – Analysis of a local-nonlocal polymer chain model 21 / 37

 Historical introduction

Why nonlocal operator?

In general relevant models in Continuum Mechanics, Mathematical
Physics and Biology are of nonlocal nature:

• Boltzmann equations in gas dynamics;

• Navier-Stokes equations in Fluid Mechanics;
• Keller-Segel model for Chemotaxis.

Here, however, we shall deal with mixed Brownian motion and Lévy
path, due to anomalous dispersion and diffusion terms.

In that setting, classical PDE theory fails because of non-locality.

Yet many of the existing techniques can be tuned and adapted, although
this is often a delicate matter because modern PDE analysis is based on
the use of localisation arguments (test and cut-off functions)
Jean-Daniel Djida – Analysis of a local-nonlocal polymer chain model 22 / 37
1 Historical introduction

2 The main questions

3 Existence and uniqueness of the solution

4 Sketch of the proof of the main theorem

 The main questions

The main questions

1 Does the polymer chain model described above have well-behaved

solutions?
2 Can we control such unusual dynamical and chaotic system?

The chalenge
The challenge we address in talk is to develop a systematic way to analyze
the interplay between local and nonlocal effects in a polymer. chain model.

Answering this fundamental question is key to ensure the model can be

safely used for predicting the behaviour or polymer chains in practice, say
through numerical simulations.

Jean-Daniel Djida – Analysis of a local-nonlocal polymer chain model 24 / 37

1 Historical introduction

2 The main questions

3 Existence and uniqueness of the solution

4 Sketch of the proof of the main theorem

 Existence and uniqueness of the solution

Main contribution
Our main contribution is to show that if T is small enough—that is polymer
chains are sufficiently short— then yes, “nice” solutions exist. More precisely,

MPCMEP
we establish the following existence and uniqueness theorem for so-called IOP Publishing
IOPweak
Conf. solutions.
Series: Journal of Physics: Conf. Series 1234567890
894 (2017) 012088 doi:10.1088/1742-6596/894/1/012088

Figure 3. The general design of the sensor.

Figure: [V.N. Starovoitov, 2017]:The general design of the sensor.

3.2. Numerical simulations

TheJean-Daniel
simulations of the
Djida – Analysis of a system were
local-nonlocal polymerdone
chain model / 37
for the polymer chain of polyethylene glycol,26whose
 Existence and uniqueness of the solution

Main result

Theorem 4 (with Foghem and Kouakep, 2021)

Let u0 ∈ L2 (Ω), T > 0 and ϕ satisfies Assumption 1. The problem (1) has a weak
solution u ∈ L∞ (0, T ; L2 (Ω)) ∩ L2 (0, T ; Xµ (Ω|RN )) such that

ϕ(v) ∈ L2 (Ω), ϕ(v) v ∈ L2 (Ω), ϕ(v) u2 ∈ L1 (ΩT ), and u ∈ C(0, T ; L2 (Ω)),

ˆ T
where v = u dt. Moreover, the following estimate holds
0
ˆ T ˆ
1 1
kuk2L∞ (0,T ;L2 (Ω)) + kuk2L2 (0,T ;Xµ (Ω|RN )) + ϕ(v) u2 dx dt 6 ku0 k2L2 (Ω)
2 0 Ω 2
(7)
1
k∂t uk2L2 (0,T ;(Xµ (Ω|RN )))∩L2 (Ω,ϕ(v))∗ 6 ku0 k2L2 (Ω) . (8)
2

Jean-Daniel Djida – Analysis of a local-nonlocal polymer chain model 27 / 37

 Existence and uniqueness of the solution

Remarks and philosophy of our result

The proof of Theorem 4 is too technical to be reported in full, but follows an
interesting strategy that we outline here without being too precise.
The main idea is to apply the Tikhonoff theorem on the existence of a fixed
point of a certain map. To construct this map, consider the following two
simplified problems.

Jean-Daniel Djida – Analysis of a local-nonlocal polymer chain model 28 / 37

 Existence and uniqueness of the solution

Nonlocal elliptic problem

The first simplified problem is an elliptic local-nonlocal problem, which

given a measurable function f : Ω → R asks one to find a function
v : RN → R satisfying:

L v + ϕ(v) v = f in Ω,
(9)
v=0 on RN \ Ω.

(a) Heuristically, this problem is obtained by integrating the model (9) with
respect to t from 0 to T . In a sense, the functions v and f correspond to
´T
0 u(·, t) dt and u0 − u(·, T ), respectively.

(b) Notice that, there is a difficulty with the integrability of the term ϕ(v)v.
We handle here by considering the function f ∈ L2 (Ω), so that we expect
more from the solution of the problem such as ϕ(v) ∈ L2 (Ω).

Jean-Daniel Djida – Analysis of a local-nonlocal polymer chain model 29 / 37

 Existence and uniqueness of the solution

We use the following notation χ(τ) = ϕ(τ)τ. A function v ∈ Xµ (Ω|RN ) is

said to be a weak solution of problem (9) if χ(v) ∈ L2 (Ω) and

E(v, ψ) + (χ(v), ψ) = (f, ψ) for all ψ ∈ Xµ (Ω|RN ). (10)

Next, we want to show that the above variational problem (10) is well-posed
in the sense of Hadamard. In other words, it possesses a unique solution
which continuously depends upon the data.

Lemma 5 (Stability lemma)

Let fi ∈ L2 (Ω), i = 1, 2. Assume that vi ∈ Xµ (Ω|RN ) satisfies

ξ(vi , ψ) + (χ(vi ), ψ) = (fi , ψ) for all ψ ∈ Xµ (Ω|RN ).

Then, for some constant C = C(N, Ω, µ) > 0 only depending only N, Ω and µ such
that

kv1 − v2 kXµ (Ω|RN ) 6 Ckf1 − f2 k(Xµ (Ω|RN ))∗ (11)

Jean-Daniel Djida – Analysis of a local-nonlocal polymer chain model 30 / 37

 Existence and uniqueness of the solution

Theorem 6
Let Assumption 1 be in force and let f ∈ L2 (Ω). Then, the problem (9) has a unique
weak solution v ∈ Xµ (Ω|RN ) such that
(i) ξ(v, v) 6 C kfk2L2 (Ω) , where C > 0 depends on N, Ω, and µ.

(ii) kϕ(v) vkL2 (Ω) 6 kfkL2 (Ω) .

(iii) kϕ(v)k2L2 (Ω) 6 C 0 kfk2L2 (Ω) + |Ω|, where C 0 > 0 only depends on ϕ.

Jean-Daniel Djida – Analysis of a local-nonlocal polymer chain model 31 / 37

 Existence and uniqueness of the solution

Nonlocal parabolic problem

The second simplified problem is a mixed local-nonlocal linear parabolic
problem describing the evolution of an ‘ideal’ polymer chain. It reads


∂t u + L u + ζu = 0 in ΩT ,
u=0 in Σ, (12)


u(·, 0) = u0 , in Ω,

where u0 , ζ ∈ L2 (Ω) with ζ > 0.

We assume µ < L1 (RN ) so that the embedding Xµ (Ω|RN ) ,→ L2 (Ω) is
compact.

By the standard Galerkin superposition method, a weak solution u of
the

problem (12) can be easily obtained in L2 0, T ; Xµ (Ω|RN ) ∩ L2 (Ω, ζ) .

Here, L2 (Ω, ζ) is the Hilbert space with the norm

ˆ
kuk2L2 (Ω,ζ) = u2 (x) ζ(x)dx.
Jean-Daniel Djida – Analysis of a local-nonlocal polymer chain model Ω 32 / 37
1 Historical introduction

2 The main questions

3 Existence and uniqueness of the solution

4 Sketch of the proof of the main theorem

 Sketch of the proof of the main theorem

Combining the two simplified problems

Existence results for the two simplified problems can, with a little work, be
combined to establish the existence of weak solutions to our original model
(1). To do this, we use the so-called the Tychonoff fixed-point theorem,
which is a well-known and powerful tool to prove the existence of solutions
to partial differential equations.

Tychonoff’s theorem
Tychonoff’s theorem tells us that if a map π : Z → Z from a space Z to itself
has certain properties, then it has a fixed point—that is, there exists an
element z ∈ Z such that π(z) = Z.
For our problem, the right choice of π comes from composing the map
ζ 7→ UT (ζ) from a potential ξ to the corresponding solution of the parabolic
problem (12) with the map f 7→ V (f) from a function f to the corresponding
solution of the elliptic problem (9). Precisely, we can prove the following
result.

Jean-Daniel Djida – Analysis of a local-nonlocal polymer chain model 34 / 37

 Sketch of the proof of the main theorem

Theorem 7
Let T > 0 and let u0 be a square-integrable function. The map
w 7→ π(w) := UT (ϕ(V (u0 − w))) has a fixed point uT , that is, uT = π(uT ).
Moreover, uT is a weak solution of problem (1).

1 This theorem already establishes the existence of a solution to our

polymer chain model for chains of arbitrary length T .

2 To obtain Theorem 4, which is our main result, we therefore only need to

establish the uniqueness of these solutions.

3 This can be done if T satisfies the smallness condition in the statement of

that theorem using standard calculations based on the so-called
“maximum principle”.

Jean-Daniel Djida – Analysis of a local-nonlocal polymer chain model 35 / 37

 Sketch of the proof of the main theorem

Bibliography I

Victor N. Starovoitov and Botagoz N. Starovoitova. Modeling the

dynamics of polymer chains in water solution. Application to sensor
design, Journal of Physics: Conference series. 894 (1): 012088, (2017).
Victor N. Starovoitov. Boundary value problem for a global-in-time parabolic
equation, Math. Methods Appl. Sci. 44 (1): 1118-1126, (2021).
J-D. Djida, Guy F. Foghem Gounoue, and Yannick Kouakep
Tchaptchie. Nonlocal complement value problem for a global in time parabolic
equation, J. Elliptic. Parabol Equ. 8:767-789, (2022).

Jean-Daniel Djida – Analysis of a local-nonlocal polymer chain model 36 / 37

 Sketch of the proof of the main theorem

Thank you !

Jean-Daniel Djida – Analysis of a local-nonlocal polymer chain model 37 / 37