Asymptotics of the principal eigenvalue of a linear elliptic operator with large advection

Abstract

Consider the eigenvalue problem of a linear second order elliptic operator: \begin{equation} \nonumber -D\Delta \varphi -2\alpha\nabla m(x)\cdot \nabla\varphi+V(x)\varphi=\lambda\varphi\ \ \hbox{ in }\Omega, \end{equation} complemented by the Dirichlet boundary condition or the following general Robin boundary condition: $$ \frac{\partial\varphi}{\partial n}+\beta(x)\varphi=0 \ \ \hbox{ on }\partial\Omega, $$ where $\Omega\subset\mathbb{R}^N (N\geq1)$ is a bounded smooth domain, $n(x)$ is the unit exterior normal to $\partial\Omega$ at $x\in\partial\Omega$, $D>0$ and $\alpha>0$ are, respectively, the diffusion and advection coefficients, $m\in C^2(\overline\Omega),\,V\in C(\overline\Omega)$, $\beta\in C(\partial\Omega)$ are given functions, and $\beta$ allows to be positive, sign-changing or negative. In \cite{PZZ2019}, the asymptotic behavior of the principal eigenvalue of the above eigenvalue problem as $D\to0$ or $D\to\infty$ was studied. In this paper, when $N\geq2$, under proper conditions on the advection function $m$, we establish the asymptotic behavior of the principal eigenvalue as $\alpha\to\infty$, and when $N=1$, we obtain a complete characterization for such asymptotic behavior provided $m'$ changes sign at most finitely many times. Our results complement or improve those in \cite{BHN2005,CL2008,PZ2018} and also partially answer some questions raised in \cite{BHN2005}.