On solvability of a nonlocal problem for the Laplace equation with the fractional-order boundary operator

In the present work, we study properties of some integro-differential operators of the Hadamard-Marchaud type in the class of harmonic functions. As an application of these properties, we consider the question of the solvability of a nonlocal boundary value problem for the Laplace equation in the unit ball.

MSC:35J05, 35J25, 26A33.

Let be the unit ball, n\ge 2. A paradigm in the theory of elliptic partial differential equations and harmonic functions is the Laplace equation

If we prescribe the values of the solution at the boundary ∂ Ω of Ω, then we can solve equation (1) uniquely. Of course, one can consider many other boundary conditions such as Neumann’s boundary conditions.

In some applied problems of hydrodynamics [1], it is necessary to prescribe the value of a fractional derivative of the solution on the boundary. Fractional differential equations and boundary value problems involving fractional derivatives appear in many applied problems ranging from the spring-pot model [2] to geology [3] or from nonlinear circuits [4] to alternative models to differential equations [5].

Hence, in this paper we study the Laplace equation concentrating on some conditions on the boundary involving derivatives of fractional order.

Note that numerous works of authors [6–13] were dedicated to the research questions of the solvability of boundary value problems for partial differential equations with boundary operators of high (whole and fractional) order. In the paper of A.N. Tikhonov [14] boundary value problems with boundary conditions containing derivatives of higher order have been investigated for the heat equation. Research questions as regards the solvability of similar problems for higher-order equations with boundary operators of whole and fractional order were carried out in [15, 16]. Later in [17], these results were generalized for partial differential equations of fractional order. In [18–20] questions about the solvability of boundary value problems with boundary operators of high order were studied for the Laplace equation. In the studies of these authors the exact conditions for the solvability have been established and the integral representations of solutions of the studied problems have been found. The cycle of studies by the authors [21–26] is devoted to the study of the existence and smoothness of solutions of boundary value problems for the second-order elliptic equations with boundary operators of fractional order. In the paper mentioned above local boundary value problems with boundary operators of fractional order in the Riemann-Liouville or Caputo sense are studied. In this paper we study nonlocal problems with boundary operators of fractional-order derivatives of Hadamard type. Definitions of Hadamard operators, a statement of the main problems, and the history of the questions on this topic are in Section 3.

The organization of this paper is as follows. In Section 2, we present the operators of integration and differentiation in the Hadamard sense and some modifications. In the third section we provide a formulation of the basic problem of this paper and some historical information as regards nonlocal boundary value problems. In the fourth section we study the properties of integral and differential Hadamard-Marchaud operators in the class of harmonic functions in the ball. In Section 5 we provide some auxiliary propositions. Finally, Section 6 is devoted to the study of the fundamental problem, where we formulate and prove the main statement of the paper.

In this section, we give a statement on the operators of fractional differentiation in the sense of Hadamard, Hadamard-Marchaud, and their modifications.

For any positive α, fractional integrals and derivatives of the order α in the sense of Hadamard are defined by the following formulas [27]:

where \delta =t\frac{d}{dt} is the Dirac operator, m=[\alpha ] is the integral part of α.

If , then, in the class of sufficiently ‘good’ functions, operator (3) can be reduced to the following form [27]:

This operator is said to be the differentiation operator of order α in the sense of Hadamard-Marchaud.

In [28], the following modification of the Hadamard-Marchaud operator was considered:

In [18], in the class of harmonic functions in a ball, the properties and applications of the operators in the form of

are considered. Here \mu >0, r=|x|, x=(x_1,\dots ,x_n), and r\frac{\partial }{\partial r} is a differential operator in the form of r\frac{\partial }{\partial r}={\sum }_{i=1}^n{x}_i\frac{\partial }{\partial x_i}.

Let u(x) be a harmonic function in the domain Ω, and let 0\le \alpha, be arbitrary real numbers. Let us consider a modification of the Bavrin operator (6).

Introduce the operators

If \alpha =m, \mu >0, then we obtain the Bavrin operator D_{\mu }^m[u](x)={(r\frac{\partial }{\partial r}+\mu )}^m.

Let t_k:\partial \mathrm{\Omega }\to {\mathrm{\Gamma }}_k\subset {\overline{\mathrm{\Omega }}}_1\subset \mathrm{\Omega }, k=1,2,\dots , {\mathrm{\Gamma }}_k\ne \mathrm{\varnothing }, be continuous mappings, and let a_k(x) be continuous functions satisfying the condition

We assume that the series (7) converges uniformly on ∂ Ω.

Further, let \mu >0, 0\le \beta \le \alpha, and \alpha +\beta \ne 0, i.e. α and β are not equal to zero simultaneously.

Consider the following boundary value problem:

where f(x)\in C(\partial \mathrm{\Omega }).

A harmonic function u(x) from the class C^2(\mathrm{\Omega })\cap \mathrm{C}(\overline{\mathrm{\Omega }}), such that D_{\mu }^{\alpha }u(x)\in C(\overline{\mathrm{\Omega }}) and condition (9) is realized in the classical sense, will be called a solution of problem (8)-(9).

The above-mentioned problem is a simple generalization of Bitsadze-Samarskii’s nonlocal problem [29]. For convenience of the reader, we formulate the Bitsadze-Samarskii problem.

Let D be a finite simply-connected domain of the plane of complex variables z=x+iy with the smooth boundary S=\partial D, and let S_1 be a closed simple smooth curve lying in D.

We denote by \tau =\nu (t), t\in S, \tau \in S_1 a diffeomorphism between S and S_1.

Formulation of the problem: We are to find a harmonic function u(z)=u(x,y) in D, which is continuous in \overline{D}=D\cup S and satisfies the boundary condition

where f(t) is a given function.

Similar problems with operators of integer order were considered in [30–32], and for operators of fractional order with fractional-order derivatives in the sense of Riemann-Liouville and Caputo in [33–41]. It should also be noted that some questions of solvability of nonlocal problems for fractional-order equations in the one-dimensional case were studied in [42–44].

In this section, we study some properties of the operators J_{\mu }^{\alpha } and D_{\mu }^{\alpha } in the class of harmonic functions. Further, for convenience, we shall take everywhere \gamma =\alpha -m.

Lemma 1 Let \alpha >0, \mu >0, and H_k(x) be a homogeneous harmonic polynomial of the power k\in N_0=\{0,1,\dots \}. Then the following equalities are correct:

Proof Let \mu >0. Then, using homogeneity of the polynomial H_k(x), we obtain

The value of the last integral can easily be calculated with the help of the change of variables z=-lns. In fact,

The equality (10) is proved.

Further, note that the relation

holds for the operator {\delta }_{\mu }^m.

Now, let us study actions of the operator D_{\mu }^{\gamma } to the functions H_k(x). Using the definition of D_{\mu }^{\gamma } and the homogeneity of H_k(x), we have

Denoting \mathrm{I}={\int }_0^1(s^{\mu }-s^{k+\mu }){(ln\frac{1}{s})}^{-(\gamma +1)}\frac{ds}{s} and integrating by parts, we get

After the change of variables z=-lns, as in the proof of equality (10), we easily obtain

which implies D_{\mu }^{\gamma }[H_k](x)={(k+\mu )}^{\gamma }{H}_k(x).

Further, taking into account fulfilling of equality (12), we obtain in the general case for :

The lemma is proved. □

Lemma 2 Let \alpha >0, \mu >0, and u(x) be a harmonic function in the ball Ω. Then the functions D_{\mu }^{\alpha }[u](x) and J_{\mu }^{\alpha }[u](x) are also harmonic in Ω.

Proof Let u(x) be a harmonic function in the ball Ω. Then it is known [45] that the function u(x) is represented in the form of the series

where \{H_k^{(i)}(x):i=1,\dots ,h_k\} is a complete system of homogeneous harmonic polynomials of power k, and u_k^{(i)} are coefficients of the expansion (13). Applying formally the operator D_{\mu }^{\alpha } to the series (13) and taking into account equality (11), we obtain

Now let us check convergence of the series (13) and (14). The following asymptotical estimate is valid for h_k:

Moreover, the series (13) converges absolutely and uniformly by x at , hence, for any |x|\le \rho and any i,k\in N_0, the equalities |u_k^{(i)}{H}_k^{(i)}(x)|\le c_{\rho } hold. Since {lim}_{k\to \mathrm{\infty }}\sqrt[k]{{(k+\mu )}^{\alpha }}=1, we have for |x|\le r\rho and

Therefore, the series (14) converges absolutely and uniformly by x at |x|\le r\rho, where , , and its sum is a harmonic function. By virtue of the arbitrariness of and , the function D_{\mu }^{\alpha }[u](x) is defined in the whole ball Ω.

Let us study the function J_{\mu }^{\alpha }. Applying formally the operator J_{\mu }^{\alpha } to the series (13), taking into account equality (10), we obtain

Convergence of this series can be checked as in the case of series (14), and that is why J_{\mu }^{\alpha }[u](x) is a harmonic function in the ball Ω. The lemma is proved. □

Now we show that the function u(x) can be represented in terms of the function D_{\mu }^{\alpha }[u](x).

Lemma 3 Let \alpha >0, \mu >0, and u(x) be a harmonic function in the domain Ω. Then for any x\in \mathrm{\Omega } the equality

is valid.

Proof Let \mu >0. Represent a harmonic function u(x) in the form of the series (13) and transform it to the form of

Further, taking into account equalities (10)-(11), and the absolute and uniform convergence of the series (15) by x at , it can be reduced to the form of

The lemma is proved. □

One can similarly prove the following lemma.

Lemma 4 Let , \mu >0, and u(x) be a harmonic function in the domain Ω. Then for any x\in \mathrm{\Omega } the equality

is valid.

Lemma 5 Let \alpha >0, \mu >0, and u(x) be a harmonic function in the domain Ω. Then the following equalities hold:

Proof Let \mu >0. Applying the operator J_{\mu }^{\alpha } to the function D_{\mu }^{\alpha }[u](x), we obtain

By virtue of Lemma 3, the value of the last integral is equal to u(x), i.e. J_{\mu }^{\alpha }[D_{\mu }^{\alpha }[u]](x)=u(x).

To prove the second equality, apply the operator D_{\mu }^{\gamma } to the function J_{\mu }^{\alpha }[u](x). We get

Then, in the general case,

The lemma is proved. □

Let t_k and a_k(x) satisfy the conditions from Section 2.

Consider the following problem in the domain Ω:

where \mu >0, 0\le \beta \le \alpha, and \alpha +\beta \ne 0, i.e. α and β are not equal to zero simultaneously, f(x)\in C(\partial \mathrm{\Omega }).

A harmonic function v(x) from the class C^2(\mathrm{\Omega })\cap C(\overline{\mathrm{\Omega }}), satisfying condition (18) in the classical case, will be called a solution of problem (17)-(18).

It should be noted that problem (17)-(18) was investigated for the case of \alpha =\beta in [30].

Let us investigate uniqueness for the solution of problem (17)-(18). The following statement holds.

Lemma 6 Let {\mathrm{\Gamma }}_k\subset {\overline{\mathrm{\Omega }}}_1\subset \mathrm{\Omega }, k=1,2,\dots , a_k(x), k=0,1,2,\dots , be continuous functions satisfying the condition

and let a solution of problem (17)-(18) exist.

Then:

1. (1)

   If

   \sum _{k=1}^{\mathrm{\infty }}{a}_k(x)\ne {\mu }^{\alpha -\beta },x\in \partial \mathrm{\Omega },

   (20)

then the solution of problem (17)-(18) is unique.

1. (2)

   If

   \sum _{k=1}^{\mathrm{\infty }}{a}_k(x)\equiv {\mu }^{\alpha -\beta },x\in \partial \mathrm{\Omega },

   (21)

then the solution of problem (17)-(18) is unique up to a constant summand.

Proof Let v(x) be the solution of problem (17)-(18) at f(x)=0.

Denote M=|v(x_0)|={max}_{\partial \mathrm{\Omega }}|v(x)|, x_0\in \partial \mathrm{\Omega }.

Then if v(x)\ne \text{const}, then, by virtue of the maximum principle for harmonic functions [46], the inequality holds for any x\in \mathrm{\Omega }.

The boundary condition (18) at f(x)=0 implies

Further, since t_k:\partial \mathrm{\Omega }\to {\mathrm{\Gamma }}_k\subset {\overline{\mathrm{\Omega }}}_1\subset \mathrm{\Omega }, k=1,2,\dots , {\mathrm{\Gamma }}_k\ne \mathrm{\varnothing }, then t_k(x_0)\in \mathrm{\Omega }, and for any s\in [0,1], s{t}_k(x_0)\in \mathrm{\Omega }. Therefore .

Hence,

If now condition (19) is realized , then {\mu }^{\beta -\alpha }{\sum }_{k=1}^{\mathrm{\infty }}|a_k(x_0)|\le 1, and we obtain from this the contradiction .

Hence, if condition (19) holds, it is necessary that v(x)=C\equiv \text{const}. Since J_{\mu }^{\alpha -\beta }[C]={\mu }^{\beta -\alpha }\cdot C, substituting the function v(x)=C into the boundary condition (18), for f(x)=0 we have

The last equality is equivalent to the equality

We obtain from this the result that either C=0 or {\sum }_{k=1}^{\mathrm{\infty }}{a}_k(x)={\mu }^{\alpha -\beta }.

Thus, if conditions (19) and (20) are fulfilled, we obtain C=0, i.e. v(x)\equiv 0.

If the conditions (21) are fulfilled, then any constant is a solution of the homogeneous problem (17)-(18). In fact, substituting v(x)\equiv C into equation (18), we obtain

The lemma is proved. □

Now investigate existence of a solution of problem (17)-(18). Let 0\le \beta \le \alpha and let P(x,y)=\frac{1}{{\omega }_n}\frac{1-{|x|}^2}{{|x-y|}^n} be the Poisson kernel of the Dirichlet problem, and {\omega }_n the area of the unit sphere.

Introduce the function

and consider the equation

The following statement holds.

Lemma 7 Let {\mathrm{\Gamma }}_k\subset {\overline{\mathrm{\Omega }}}_1\subset \mathrm{\Omega }, a_k(x), k=1,2,\dots , be continuous functions satisfying the condition (19). Then:

1. (1)

   If the condition (20) is realized, then problem (17)-(18) is uniquely solvable at any f(x)\in C(\partial \mathrm{\Omega }).

2. (2)

   If the condition (21) is realized, then problem (17)-(18) is solvable if the following condition is realized:

   {\int }_{\partial \mathrm{\Omega }}f(x){\psi }_0(x)d{s}_x=0,

   (24)

where the function {\psi }_0(x) is a solution of equation (23), moreover the number of independent solutions of this equation under these conditions is equal to 1.

Proof Since v(x) is a harmonic function, a solution of problem (17)-(18) can be found in the form of the Poisson integral v(x)={\int }_{\partial \mathrm{\Omega }}P(x,y)\nu (x)d{s}_x where \nu (x) is an unknown function. Substituting this function into the boundary condition (18), we obtain the integral equation with respect to the unknown function \nu (x),

Designate

Then equation (25) can be rewritten in the form of

To investigate the solvability of the integral equation (26), we study the properties of the kernel K(x,y). We show that K(x,y) is a continuous function on \partial \mathrm{\Omega }\times \partial \mathrm{\Omega }.

In fact, since t_k(x)\in {\overline{\mathrm{\Omega }}}_1\subset \mathrm{\Omega }, we obtain |s{t}_k(x)-y|>0 for all x,y\in \partial \mathrm{\Omega }, and therefore the function P(s{t}_k(x),y) is continuous on \partial \mathrm{\Omega }\times \partial \mathrm{\Omega }. Further, the function s^{\mu -1}{|lns|}^{\alpha -\beta -1} has an integrable singularity, and that is why the function P_{\alpha -\beta ,\mu }(t_k(x),y) is continuous on \partial \mathrm{\Omega }\times \partial \mathrm{\Omega }. Then by virtue of the uniform convergence of the series {\sum }_{k=1}^{\mathrm{\infty }}{a}_k(x), the kernel K(x,y) is also a continuous function on \partial \mathrm{\Omega }\times \partial \mathrm{\Omega }.

Hence, one can apply Fredholm theory to equation (26). Since in the case of f(x)=0 and fulfillment of the condition (20), the solution of problem (17)-(18) can only be v(x)\equiv 0, for f(x)=0 the integral equation (26) has only a trivial solution.

Hence, for any f(x)\in C(\partial \mathrm{\Omega }) the solution of equation (26) exists, is unique, and belongs to the class C(\partial \mathrm{\Omega }). Using this solution, we construct the function v(x) which will satisfy all the conditions of problem (17)-(18).

If the condition (21) is valid, then v(x)=C satisfies the condition (18) at f(x)\equiv 0, i.e. the corresponding homogeneous equation (26) has the nonzero solution v(x)\equiv C. Then the adjoint homogeneous equation has also a nonzero solution, and that is why in this case fulfillment of the condition (24) is necessary and sufficient for solvability of problem (17)-(18). The lemma is proved. □

We now formulate the basic statement.

Theorem 1 Let \mu >0, 0\le \beta \le \alpha, \alpha +\beta \ne 0, {\mathrm{\Gamma }}_k\subset {\overline{\mathrm{\Omega }}}_1\subset \mathrm{\Omega }, a_k(x), k=1,2,\dots , be continuous functions satisfying the condition (19). Then:

1. (1)

   If the condition (20) is fulfilled, then problem (8)-(9) is uniquely solvable at any f(x)\in C(\partial \mathrm{\Omega }).

2. (2)

   If the condition (21) is fulfilled, then the condition (24) is necessary and sufficient for solvability of problem (8)-(9) where the function {\psi }_0(x) is a solution of equation (23). If a solution of the problem exists, then it is unique up to the constant summand.

3. (3)

   If a solution of problem (8)-(9) exists, then it is represented in the form of u(x)=J_{\mu }^{\alpha }[v](x), where v(x) is a solution of problem (17)-(18).

Proof (1) Let a solution u(x) of problem (8)-(9) exist. Apply to this function the operator D_{\mu }^{\alpha } and denote v(x)=D_{\mu }^{\alpha }[u](x). Take the problem which the function v(x) satisfies. Since by Lemma 2, in the case of harmonicity of the function u(x), the function D_{\mu }^{\alpha }[u](x) is also harmonic in Ω, and the function v(x) is harmonic.

Further, since according to Lemma 5 the equality D_{\mu }^{\beta }[u](x)=J_{\mu }^{\alpha -\beta }[D_{\mu }^{\alpha }[u]](x) holds, the boundary condition of problem (8)-(9),

with respect to the function v(x) will be rewritten in the form of

In addition, since D_{\mu }^{\alpha }[u](x)\in C(\overline{\mathrm{\Omega }}), we have v(x)\in C(\partial \overline{\mathrm{\Omega }}). Thus, if u(x) is a solution of problem (8)-(9), then the function v(x)=D_{\mu }^{\alpha }[u](x) will be a solution of problem (17)-(18).

Now, let the conditions (19) and (20) be realized. Then by Lemmas 6 and 7, for any f(x)\in C(\partial \mathrm{\Omega }) the solution of problem (17)-(18) exists, is unique, and designate u(x)=J_{\mu }^{\alpha }[v](x), x\in \overline{\mathrm{\Omega }}. Then we have by Lemma 5 D_{\mu }^{\alpha }[u](x)=D_{\mu }^{\alpha }[J_{\mu }^{\alpha }[v]](x)=v(x) in Ω, and therefore we get D_{\mu }^{\alpha }[u](x)\in C(\overline{\mathrm{\Omega }}). Harmonicity of the function u(x) follows from Lemma 2, and fulfillment of the conditions (9) can be checked immediately:

The first statement of the theorem is proved.

(2) Let now the condition (21) be fulfilled, and let the solution u(x) of problem (8)-(9) exist. Consider the function v(x)=D_{\mu }^{\alpha }[u](x). As in the first case, we show that the function v(x) satisfies the conditions of problem (17)-(18). Then according to Lemma 7, fulfillment of the condition (24) is necessary. Thus, we prove the necessity of the condition (24) at fulfillment of the equality (21).

We show that if the equality (21) is fulfilled, then the condition (24) is also sufficient for the existence of the solution of problem (8)-(9).

In fact, if the conditions (21) and (24) are realized, a solution of problem (17)-(18) exists, is unique up to constant summand, and v(x)\in C(\overline{\mathrm{\Omega }}). Then, similarly to the proof of the first statement of the theorem, the function u(x)=J_{\mu }^{\alpha }[v](x) satisfies all the conditions of problem (8)-(9). The theorem is proved. □

Remark 1 One can show that in the case of {\sum }_{k=1}^{\mathrm{\infty }}|a_k(x)|>{\mu }^{\alpha -\beta }, the corresponding homogeneous problem (8)-(9) has nontrivial solutions.

Example 1 Let a_1\ne 0, a_k=0, k=2,3,\dots , and t_1(x)=\delta x, . Further, let H_k(x) be a homogeneous harmonic polynomial of the power k. By virtue of the equality (11), we have D_{\mu }^{\alpha }[H_k](x)={(k+\mu )}^{\alpha }{H}_k(x).

Then

and

Hence, for a_1={\delta }^{-k}{(k+\mu )}^{\alpha -\beta } the harmonic polynomial H_k(x) will be the solution of the homogeneous problem (8)-(9). If δ is a number close to zero, then we have a_1>1.

If the dimension of the space n=3, then the number of these polynomials is equal to 2k+1 [47].

This work has been supported by the MON Republic of Kazakhstan under Research Grant No. 0713/GF.

Affiliations

1. Department of Mathematics, Akhmet Yasawi International Kazakh-Turkish University, B. Sattarkhanov Street 29, Turkistan, 161200, Kazakhstan

   • Moldir A Muratbekova
   • , Kanat M Shinaliyev
   •  & Batirkhan K Turmetov

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Moldir A Muratbekova.

Competing interests

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Authors’ contributions

All authors completed the paper together. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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