Approximate homogenization of convex nonlinear elliptic PDEs

Abstract

We approximate the homogenization of fully nonlinear, convex, uniformly elliptic Partial Differential Equations in the periodic setting, using a variational formula for the optimal invariant measure, which may be derived via Legendre-Fenchel duality. The variational formula expresses $\bar H$ as an average of the operator against the optimal invariant measure, generalizing the linear case. Several nontrivial analytic formulas for $\bar H$ are obtained. These formulas are compared to numerical simulations, using both PDE and variational methods. We also perform a numerical study of convergence rates for homogenization in the periodic and random setting and compare these to theoretical results.