Initial-boundary value problems for multi-term time-fractional diffusion equations with positive constant coefficients

Abstract

In this paper, we investigate the well-posedness and the long-time asymptotic behavior for the initial-boundary value problem for multi-term time-fractional diffusion equations, where the time differentiation consists of a finite summation of Caputo derivatives with decreasing orders in (0,1) and positive constant coefficients. By exploiting several important properties of multinomial Mittag-Leffler functions, various estimates follow from the explicit solutions in form of these special functions. Then the uniqueness and continuous dependency upon initial value and source term are established, from which the continuous dependence of solution of Lipschitz type with respect to various coefficients is also verified. Finally, by a Laplace transform argument, it turns out that the decay rate of the solution as time tends to infinity is dominated by the minimum order of the time-fractional derivatives.