Advantages for controls imposed in a proper subset

Abstract

In this paper, we study time optimal control problems for heat equations on $\Omega\times \mathbb{R}^+$. Two properties under consideration are the existence and the bang-bang properties of time optimal controls. It is proved that those two properties hold when controls are imposed on some proper subsets of $\Omega$; while they do not stand when controls are active on the whole $\Omega$. Besides, a new property for eigenfunctions of $-\Delta$ with Dirichlet boundary condition is revealed.