The charge conserving Poisson-Boltzmann equations: Existence, uniqueness, and maximum principle
- Department of Applied Mathematics, National Hsinchu University of Education, Hsinchu 300, Taiwan (China)
The present article is concerned with the charge conserving Poisson-Boltzmann (CCPB) equation in high-dimensional bounded smooth domains. The CCPB equation is a Poisson-Boltzmann type of equation with nonlocal coefficients. First, under the Robin boundary condition, we get the existence of weak solutions to this equation. The main approach is variational, based on minimization of a logarithm-type energy functional. To deal with the regularity of weak solutions, we establish a maximum modulus estimate for the standard Poisson-Boltzmann (PB) equation to show that weak solutions of the CCPB equation are essentially bounded. Then the classical solutions follow from the elliptic regularity theorem. Second, a maximum principle for the CCPB equation is established. In particular, we show that in the case of global electroneutrality, the solution achieves both its maximum and minimum values at the boundary. However, in the case of global non-electroneutrality, the solution may attain its maximum value at an interior point. In addition, under certain conditions on the boundary, we show that the global non-electroneutrality implies pointwise non-electroneutrality.
- OSTI ID:
- 22306212
- Journal Information:
- Journal of Mathematical Physics, Vol. 55, Issue 5; Other Information: (c) 2014 AIP Publishing LLC; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0022-2488
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
Nonlinear Boltzmann equation with partially absorbing boundary conditions. Global existence and uniqueness results
Convergence of Spectral Discretizations of the Vlasov--Poisson System