Optimal Distributed Control for a Cahn-Hilliard-Darcy System with Mass Sources, Unmatched Viscosities and Singular Potential

Abstract

We study a Cahn-Hilliard-Darcy system with mass sources, which can be considered as a basic, though simplified, diffuse interface model for the evolution of tumor growth. This system is equipped with an impermeability condition for the (volume) averaged velocity $\mathbf{u}$ as well as homogeneous Neumann boundary conditions for the phase function $φ$ and the chemical potential $μ$. The source term in the convective Cahn-Hilliard equation contains a control $R$ that can be thought, for instance, as a drug or a nutrient in applications. Our goal is to study a distributed optimal control problem in the two dimensional setting with a cost functional of tracking-type. In the physically relevant case with unmatched viscosities for the binary fluid mixtures and a singular potential, we first prove the existence and uniqueness of a global strong solution with $φ$ being strictly separated from the pure phases $\pm 1$. This well-posedness result enables us to characterize the control-to-state mapping $\mathcal{S}:R \mapsto φ$. Then we obtain the existence of an optimal control, the Fréchet differentiability of $\mathcal{S}$ and first-order necessary optimality conditions expressed through a suitable variational inequality for the adjoint variables. Finally, we prove the differentiability of the control-to-costate operator and establish a second-order sufficient condition for the strict local optimality.