Stability estimates for parabolic problems with Wentzell boundary conditions

AbstractOf concern is the uniformly parabolic problemut=div(A∇u),u(0,x)=f(x),ut+β∂νAu+γu−qβΔLBu=0, for x∈Ω⊂RN and t⩾0. Here A={aij(x)}ij is a real, hermitian, uniformly positive definite N×N matrix; β,γ∈C(Ω¯) with β>0; q∈[0,∞) and ∂νAu is the conormal derivative of u with respect to A: and everything is sufficiently regular. The solution of this well-posed problem depends continuously on the ingredients of the problem, namely, A,β,γ,q,f. This is shown using semigroup methods in [G.M. Coclite, A. Favini, G.R. Goldstein, J.A. Goldstein, S. Romanelli, Continuous dependence on the boundary parameters for the Wentzell Laplacian, Semigroup Forum, in press]. More precisely, if we have a sequence of such problems with solutions un, and if An→A, βn→β, etc. in a suitable sense, then un→u, the solution of the limiting problem. The abstract analysis associated with operator semigroup theory gives this conclusion, but no rate of convergence. Determining how fast the convergence of the solutions is requires detailed estimates. Such estimates are provided in this paper